The Temple

In the morning, when Violet awoke from her slumber, she found that she once more had 100 MP waiting for her. Of course, she would have had plenty of mana to use the night before had she wanted to spend it. That just wasn't where her focus was right now. Violet wanted to modify the first floor this morning and then spend the day trying to sell her goods instead.

However, the only room she had enough mana to take care of was the altar room to the goddess of love and beauty. She had received a blueprint for it after contracting with her first and, from what Theodore told her, the only patron deity she'd get to choose. While she could have just as easily have managed things from the second floor, Violet decided to head down to the first to see the altar room in person.

It cost the entire 100 MP she had on her person to build the altar room, which really just seemed overpriced when compared to just about anything else that she had ever built. The only things that came close were the puzzles she had built, which had cost 50 MP and 100 DP to research and immediately implement the ideas in one fell swoop. That, of course, had only happened twice with the slime-themed jigsaw being the first and the rainbow ball maze being the second. However, they had also taken up the entire room and made it easy to set up the challenges she wanted without having to imagine all of the moving pieces and build them one by one.

When she got down to the first floor, Violet immediately spent her 100 MP so that the room could be modified and then finished making her way over to the altar room. This process proved to be much more difficult now that she had to go through the hedge maze and cross the slime parkour room to do so. However, Violet just bore with it, even attempting to cross the dark and stormy room before inevitably falling into the water and having to swim the rest of the way across.

If she was going to regularly interact with those visiting the dungeon, it was best that she get proficient at crossing her own dungeon. Adding a shortcut just meant that it would be easier for others to make it to the second floor as well. While it was possible to set up other rooms in the left side of the dungeon behind the area where the hedge maze was, that would have to be more of a long-term goal. The invading [Monsters] were still likely to take the shortest and most direct path to the dungeon core should they be left to their own devices, so it wasn't exactly a big deal so long as she made the other path longer and more out of the way.

The attack from the recent god of death fanatic had seen some undead [Monsters] taking the long way around, but their master had been present and had made them go that way. That was a special case that would, hopefully, not be happening again. However, it was obvious that even undead raised by a necromancer would take the shortest path, honing in on the dungeon core, when they were alone in the dungeon. So, it wasn't like they were that much different in the end.

Violet was annoyed by how wet her clothes were, but continued forward to the altar room, quickly arriving after she had exited the slime parkour room. When she pushed open the door and looked inside, she was speechless. The floors and walls were made from a pristine white stone that had entirely replaced the usual meadow theme of the first floor. Along the floor there was also a golden rug that made a T-shaped path leading from one entrance to the other and then up to the main centerpiece of the room, the altar.

Meanwhile, the walls were paneled with intricate designs sticking out ever so slightly on most of the panels while the others held candelabras with candles that were burning bright. There was no wax dripping from these candles, nor was there an explanation for why they were even lit. Violet couldn't make a light source for her dungeon because she didn't have fire magic in her [Base Resources], nor did she have anything else that could easily be used to start a fire. For that matter, she hadn't exactly researched any of the items in this room, nor were they added to her [Items] list now that they had been built. It was all quite strange and Violet couldn't help but look up at the ceiling in thought.

Of course, the ceiling was just as blindingly white as the rest of the room. It had a sloped appearance to it with a square box outlining everything on a few of the layers. Then, the very middle, which was still left quite a large space, had an intricately engraved pattern around the outside that surrounded a large ceiling window made of glass so perfectly made that it seemed like it had to have come from modern times. The sun and the blue sky that was common in her meadows shined through this window, making the temple even more illuminated than just the candles might have allowed for.

This was all so strange and far more than Violet had been bargaining for. Looking back down didn't help matters any as she was met with the face of the goddess she had signed a contract with. Well, it was more so that a large altar with steps and a flat platform made of the same white stone as the rest of the room led up to a giant marble statue of the goddess with a chest at her feet meant for offerings. The goddess was wearing a beautiful dress that was draped perfectly across her figure with long hair cascading down to her waist and every detail of her face had been carefully and painstakingly created. She was holding a bouquet of flowers in her arms with one arm cradling them while the other rested at her side. She even had a crown of flowers on her head to tie the whole look together.

Violet wasn't sure how accurate the details on the statue were, but she had no reason to doubt that this must be what the goddess truly looked like. The statue told the story of a beautiful and fair maiden who loved beautiful things. She could easily have a line of suitors at her beck and call and yet she didn't seem arrogant. If anything, the statue gave off a sense of love and compassion for all who came across it.

Violet was beginning to feel overwhelmed, far too overwhelmed for her own good. In her previous world, there was no definitive proof of any sort of deity truly existing. She hadn't been sure what to believe whether there was a correct religion to follow or not and she certainly didn't like getting caught up in religious propaganda. Yet, in this world, it was very clear that not just one deity, but multiple deities actually existed and had a real effect on the people of this world.

Just building this altar to the goddess of love and beauty alone meant that Violet would receive a blessing from her chosen deity to reduce the cost of evolving her [Monsters] by 25%. She didn't even have to go through and redeem the reward either, she could feel the energy flow through her and the rest of the dungeon as it took effect. Violet shook her head, she felt so overwhelmed that even the dungeon's calming effects weren't enough to keep her anxieties at bay. Soon enough, the dungeon core became more aggressive, this time forcing her into a lethargic state so that she would lay down to rest for a while. Finally, Violet gave in.