Adorable Slime

[Finalizing dungeon binding...]

Violet felt like her entire body was on fire and her mind felt like it was breaking. When she regained consciousness next, Violet felt as if she had been hit by a truck and her heart felt heavy. Her memories were clearer now and she couldn't help but sob as the memories of her husband's cold, lifeless body flitted back into her mind. It was only after she could no longer cry that she started to try and put the pieces of her situation together once more.

"Oh, Lee, darling, what am I going to do? I got the chance of a lifetime to live out my own fantasy life, even if it came at the cost of both our lives, and I'm already making a mess of it all. Slimes and a flower meadow aren't exactly impressive."

Violet wanted to continue to mope, but she decided that it wouldn't do her any good to do so. Instead, she got up off of the ground and dusted off her dress as she went to figure out what little she could about her new situation.

Violet felt better than she ever had and she certainly didn't feel dead. Well, that was if you skipped over her aching heart. Violet carefully made her way towards the stone door on one side of the room and gingerly pushed it open, surprised at how hefty it seemed to be.

When she walked through the doorway, she was met with darkness and a long hallway. The only light that had been in the core room was from the faint glow of the dungeon core, but that certainly wasn't the case here. Violet nervously made her way forward, keeping one hand along the wall as she walked forward.

From the games and stories Violet had read in her previous life, she knew that it wasn't exactly uncommon for dungeons to have [Traps] or [Monsters]. However, she could only hope that the fact that she was supposed to be the master of this dungeon would mean that she could safely traverse her dungeon without fear of being attacked.

The hallway seemed to be rather long with no turns that Violet could see. When she reached the other end, she was met with some sort of strange barrier and another system message.

[Error! The dungeon master cannot leave the limits of the dungeon. Only non-dungeon entities and contracted [Monsters] may pass the safety zone.]

Violet suddenly felt much more isolated and trapped than she had before. She hadn't noticed any other directions she could go in this dungeon and she was unable to leave it. There was no one else in this dungeon and there was no way for Violet to meet her basic survival needs. Still, Violet didn't want to give up and could only try to negotiate with this dungeon system.

"Can you please help me? Do I have a status screen or anything?"

[Dungeon Status:

Current Mana 50 / 50

Current DP: 0

Current Floors: 1

Current Rooms: 0

Monsters

Construction

Research

Missions]

Violet smiled in relief as she took in the system screen. She wasn't sure how a dungeon would increase its mana, what DP was, or much of anything else, but she was happy to see some progress. She tried to press her finger into the screen in front of her, happy to see she could actually select the [Construction] category. A new menu appeared when she did, but this one was much shorter.

[Construction Options:

Rooms & Hallways

Traps

Items]

Violet opened the [Rooms & Hallways] option first, noting that there were only a dozen options or so to choose from.

[Rooms Options:

-8 meters x 8 meters Square Room (16MP)

-16 meters x 16 meters Square Room (32MP)

-32 meters x 32 meters Square Room (64MP)

-8 meters x 8 meters Round Room (16MP)

-16 meters x 16 meters Round Room (32MP)

-32 meters x 32 meters Round Room (64MP)

-8 meters x 16 meters Rectangle Room (24MP)

-16 meters x 32 meters Rectangle Room (48MP)

-32 meters x 64 meters Rectangle Room (96MP)

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Hallway Options:

-5 meters Straight Hallway (5MP)

-10 meters Straight Hallway (10MP)

-20 meters Straight Hallway (20MP)

-20 meters L-Turn Hallway (20MP)

-30 meters 3-Way Hallway (30MP)

-40 meters 4-Way Hallway (40MP)

-14 meters x 14 meters Roundabout Hallway (28MP)

-20 meters S-Shaped Hallway (20MP)]

Violet was surprised to find that pressing on the options showed her what the room would look like on the system menu as well as pulling up an option to confirm if she wanted to build the room. After some consideration, Violet decided to try building an 8-meter x 16-meter rectangle room for 24MP.

[Would you like to build an 8-meter x 16-meter rectangle room for 24MP?

Yes or No]

Violet clicked the yes option and felt dizzy as her vision zoomed out as she had an out-of-body experience. She could see the size of the vast and empty dungeon, which seemed to have a rather large amount of free space as well as a view of the current hallway she was standing in. The core room was one end followed by a long hallway that led to an area that seemed to have a red highlighted area, as if to highlight it wasn't able to be built in.

Violet freaked out as she was unable to understand what was happening. She didn't know how to exit the view nor how to move the room into place. Violet took some calming breaths as she tried to calm herself. Nothing really made much sense anymore, but panicking wouldn't help any.

Violet tried to imagine placing the room a short distance from the entrance and was surprised when she saw the image of a rectangular room move into place. It was as if she was playing a video game as she could easily shift the room into place just by thinking about it. The previous hallway that had been there disappeared when she tried to overlap the new room with it. However, Violet found that she couldn't remove any of the other portions of the hallway.

Violet mentally frowned, feeling it was annoying that it seemed to be required that there be a pathway from the core room that connected to the entrance. She was also disappointed when she noticed her mana was displayed in the upper left of the screen, but there was no mana compensation when the hallway was removed to place the room. Violet supposed it would be a bit unfair to get the points for a hallway she didn't have to build, but it was still disappointing, nonetheless.

Once Violet felt the room was lined up in a good spot, she thought about how she was finished building and would like to exit the screen. She was pleasantly surprised when she found her vision recentering and that she could once more feel her limbs. However, Violet couldn't help but sway as she felt a wave of dizziness overcome her. It was very disorienting to have such a change in perspective.

Violet noted that she now only had 26MP left, but still chose to explore the [Monsters] category on the menu.

[Summonable Monster Options:

-Slimes [10MP]

Basic slime monster with no special features. Does very little combat damage, but is capable of evolving.

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Contractable Monster Options:

-Will-O'-Wisp [20MP]

Requires a dark environment to live in before you can form a contract. Does no combat damage, but can add ambiance and lure unsuspecting adventurers into [Traps].

-Kodama [30MP]

Requires a suitable environment full of plant life and will not engage in combat. Primarily functions as a worker-type monster and cares for its environment allowing its environment to flourish.]

Violet sighed as she noted that, even despite having other types of [Monsters] listed on her menu, none of them would be of any help in a fight. Violet also wasn't quite sure what a kodama might look like and was sure a cute slime would make for much better company.

Violet wandered towards her new room and was disappointed to find that it was mostly empty save for some grass, a fake sun, and some dandelions. Violet could only complain bitterly to herself that, while this could technically be considered a flower meadow, it was really the bare minimum. Still, Violet quickly summoned a slime for 10MP, further reducing her mana to a mere 16MP.

Violet squealed in delight as she took in the blue slime. She was glad that it had ended up being the cute kind of slime rather than the more hideous variant that some games had. As it bounced and explored the room, Violet could only watch in fascination. It was so much cuter in real life than she could have ever anticipated. Violet lay on her stomach in the grass, relaxing as she watched the slime continue to aimlessly bounce around.