3 The Dungeon Diplomat

Violet felt a strange sense of alertness take over her and a sort of cold chill pass over her. She looked around rather confused as she sat up, but she wasn't left to wonder what was going on for long before a man appeared at the entrance of the room. He was wearing rather strange clothes and seemed to have come from the direction of the dungeon entrance.

Violet backed away, wondering if she would even have a chance if she started running now. However, the man raised his hands and didn't walk any further as he assured her

"Please, miss, I come in peace. There is no need to worry."

Violet furrowed her brows as she took a better look at the man. He didn't appear to have any weapons, nor was he wearing any armor. While a world of magic could mean he was still dangerous, Violet felt his clothing was still rather strange for a dungeon. The clothes appeared to be formal attire, but not modern by any standards. Violet briefly wondered if the world she was in now was a medieval one, much like the isekai novels she enjoyed reading previously. The attire seemed fitting for nobility in medieval times from such a novel.

"I'm sure all of this is very confusing for you. However, I am just here to do my job and to help explain things to you."

Violet felt even more confused as she looked at the man. Most novels with transmigration or reincarnation did not involve some random person from the world being aware of her situation. She could only hesitantly ask

"Who are you exactly? What exactly are you going to explain to me?"

The man did not seem surprised by the question, as if he was used to such conversations, and quickly replied

"I am Theodore, a dungeon diplomat. I have been assigned to look over this dungeon and to guide its new dungeon master, which would be you. I will need to take a look at your dungeon core to ensure everything is in working order, but I can answer any questions or concerns you may have after that. While I do realize that you may not trust me, I do not recommend resisting.

[Monsters] won't attack dungeon diplomats nor do [Traps] work on us. Although, I must say that I am quite surprised that you already have a room and monster prepared. Perhaps that is my fault? I do apologize for taking so long, but I was in the middle of checking in with one of the other dungeons I look after when I was notified of a new dungeon being established."

Violet felt like she only had more questions the more Theodore spoke, but she decided it would be best to be polite for now. It wasn't like she could resist, even if she wanted to. A slime would hardly be able to take a grown man out, even if he was unarmed.

"Alright, I'll show you the way. My name is Violet, by the way. It's lovely to meet you, Theodore."

Theodore was surprised by Violet's cooperativeness. It wasn't uncommon for new dungeon masters to be combative and suspicious of him when they first met. Some never quite adjusted to him and remained rather cold towards him, even after so many years of cooperation. However, Theodore soon had his answer to much of his confusion as he checked the dungeon core.

"Purple is an interesting color, but the dungeon core seems to be in good shape. There are no cracks or deformities that I can see and it seems to be functioning perfectly.

I must say that it is quite strange to see that you have your memories of your past life intact, though."

Violet felt shocked as she had already dismissed her worries about Theodore knowing what was going on when he hadn't brought it up previously. Theodore chuckled as he took in Violet's expression and quickly explained

"When new dungeons are made, the dungeon core will summon someone who is a good match for a dungeon master. Basically, you are two halves of a whole. However, what sort of dungeon master is summoned can vary greatly.

Oftentimes, a monster, animal, or person from this world will be summoned as a dungeon master. The monsters and animals can end up evolving into sapient and more humanoid forms to better manage the dungeon. However, it is a bit different with humans.

Those who are originally from our world retain their memories, but become healthier, stronger, and semi-immortal. The only thing that can kill a dungeon master is for their dungeon core to break. You can't leave the dungeon, but any attempt to kill you without destroying the core just leads to you respawning unharmed in the dungeon core room.

Reincarnated individuals are rare, but they usually only have impressions from their previous lives, not their full intact memories. This is the first I've heard of a case like yours where the full memories are left intact. Although, that might end up making this whole process easier for me."

Violet wasn't sure how to feel about being an outlier, but it was nice to know how she ended up in the situation she was in. However, she felt even more conflicted about her newfound immortality. She wasn't entirely excited about starting a new life while the memory of her husband and their bitter end was still so fresh in her mind. To some extent, she'd almost prefer to have passed on and to be able to be at rest alongside her husband.

"Would you mind telling me a bit about why you chose to select slimes as your starting monster?"

Violet grimaced as she took in the question. She couldn't help how awkward she felt about the situation and the reason she had ended up with the monster.

"Well, it wasn't originally an option on the menu or whatever it is called. However, after I complained about none of the options being particularly cute, the choice was made for me."

Theodore nodded as he mused

"The dungeon system likely made an exception to respect your will. However, the options for starting [Monsters] are fairly limited due to the dungeon accords.

Both summonable [Monsters] and contracted [Monsters] are scaled by floor level. You can't unlock them or place them on the lower levels of your dungeon as it wouldn't be balanced enough. While adventurers enter dungeons with the knowledge that they could end up dying, the dungeons are still required to keep things fair. The [Monsters] and [Traps] on lower floors have to be able to be defeated by weaker adventurers while the higher floors can have more powerful enemies and [Traps]."

Violet nodded as she supposed this made sense. Still, she couldn't afford to waste this opportunity to ask someone knowledgeable some questions about her new circumstances.

"What other sorts of limitations do I have regarding building?"

Theodore looked thoughtful as he answered

"I'll answer your questions, but I can only stay a limited amount of time. So, why don't we limit it to five questions on your part? Then, I'll add anything else I think needs to be said before I leave. I have to check in on you once a month as well as whenever you unlock a new floor or when the locals report anything strange in the area. So, don't worry too much since I can always answer more of your questions the next time we meet. Dungeon masters live long lives, but so do dungeon diplomats like myself, so we have many long years ahead of us to discuss things. Waiting a while now won't hurt anything.

As for your question, there are a few restrictions you should be aware of. The dungeons are like large square towers made from stone and can only have a maximum of twenty-five floors total. There is no limitation on the number of rooms you can have on a given floor, but you are limited to a 150-meter x 150-meter space for all floors. To unlock a new floor you have to have a boss room with an assigned boss, use a minimum of half the space on the current floor, and have enough DP, or dungeon points, to unlock the upgrade.

You should have a basic set of rooms and hallways unlocked already, but you aren't limited to only those shapes and sizes. You can experiment by combining the current ones available to you and then use DP to set it as a reusable schematic for future use.

However, I must warn you that hallways have their own limitations so you can't use their cheaper mana cost to get around the building costs. Hallways require slightly less MP for the surface area than rooms, but are restricted to being a certain width and cannot have [Monsters] in them. You can still place [Traps], light sources, and other basic decorations in them as well as upgrade them to look a certain way, but they can't be combined to form a room that costs less to build. I know other dungeons under my care have tried, but I hope you won't waste your time with such nonsense."

Violet nodded to show her understanding. It wasn't like it was Theodore's fault if the dungeon-building system had limitations. Still, the knowledge on the amount of space she had to use and how to unlock a second floor was certainly useful. However, Violet couldn't help but feel like twenty-five floors felt like too little space to work with if she was supposed to be semi-immortal. She couldn't imagine what she was supposed to do once she ran out of new space to build in and could only imagine her life would eventually become boring.

Still, Violet needed to set that issue aside to ponder at another time. She had more questions she needed to ask!

"How does mana work? I already used a good bit of mine up, but it isn't clear to me how I get more."

Theodore smiled and nodded, clearly satisfied with Violet's choice of question, before answering

"One of the reasons that dungeons are welcomed by the people of this world is that they process the aether in the air. Dungeons turn aether into mana, which is then used by adventurers to cast spells. Aether is like unfiltered mana and, when too much builds up in the atmosphere, it can lead to aether poisoning, which can lead to all sorts of life-threatening health issues.

You can only process so much aether at once, so you'll notice that you end up getting 25% of your mana back at the beginning of each day when the dungeon naturally finishes processing the aether into mana. As adventurers use spells, they release aether into the air, but they also can increase the amount of mana your dungeon regains just by being in your dungeon. Even just having me here means you get a point of mana every minute. The points quickly stack up and you'll earn even more with more adventurers here at one time.

Although, I would mention that the maximum mana cap is a hard limit so you can't get more mana than fifty points right now. As the dungeon grows, it can handle more mana, so you'll get another fifty points added to that limit for each new floor you add. That will make it easier for you as time goes by and it is also why more powerful and larger dungeons are considered more powerful since they can process more aether.

Finally, as I'm sure you've noticed already, mana is used to make certain purchases while DP is used for others. Anything you already know how to make only costs mana while DP is needed to research new [Items], monster evolutions, etc."

Violet already felt a lot better about things now that she didn't feel quite so clueless. Still, she felt like she would have to think carefully about what questions to ask for her last three chances.