They had three more trap rooms left, and Gem kept them pretty simple.

One was up against the corner of his dungeon, so he had the room veer off to the right and end in a pretty nasty poisoned dart trap. The pressure plate at the corner would activate traps up and down the hall in a delayed wave, meaning the adventurers would be more likely to be hit by more than one.

Another was another room with false floors, but this time the area underneath was filled with lava. It seemed a bit cheap, but fall damage in general was a little unfair. In order to adequately prepare adventurers for the surprise under the floor, he created two small lava pools, on either side of the door.

“It’s got a certain aesthetic charm to it.”

When they got to the last room, Gem realized he was out of ideas. The other traps were pretty much exactly what he had intended to make, but he didn’t want to repeat any of the ideas.

Chesu thought about it for a long time before snapping his fingers. “What about hooking it up to your Plantling tunnels? Worst case scenario, adventurers will be crawling around in cramped spaces thinking they’re getting somewhere good, and best case scenario it gives your Plantlings a dedicated space to fight if they want.

Gem thought before laying out some blocks to make a wide floor.

Chesu grinned. “Honestly, kid? Even if they don’t, the adventurers will. They go nuts for stuff like that. Ambiance makes a dungeon way more fun to run around in.”

Gem made the small huts out of wood blocks, and he arranged them in a way that made the walls diagonal instead of just flat squares. It gave the illusion of a circular construction, even if blocks couldn’t be used to make a perfect circle.

Each hut was only three blocks tall and their longest side had three blocks straight in a row, so that the hut could have a proper block-wide door. He made five huts total, one for each of his current Plantlings.

When he finished, Chesu flew down into one of the huts and let out a low whistle that reverberated through the structure. “Once you get to decorating these with some plants? Adventurers are going to love this place. It’ll feel like a real, lived-in place.”

Chesu snorted. “End of the world is coming in weeks and you’re thinking about the comfort of your dungeon mobs. Kid, you’re something else.”

Gem knew his dungeon mobs were going to be dying and killing for him to gain experience so he could save the world. The least he could do was make them comfortable in all the times between combat. Especially when it took up such little time and effort.

“Great job, kid. No notes here. Three things left to do: plants, carrots, and fix your stairway.”

“Well, for one, it’s unsightly as hell just sitting on the side of your dungeon like that. But for two? You’ve made it incredibly easy for the Ostrum to get to you.”

Gem felt his core go cold. He chastised himself immediately. Forgetting something like that was silly; the whole reason he was going to enclose his core room and generators was to make it safer for him. Leaving a side entrance so close to his core was borderline stupid.

“It’s alright, kid. You can’t be expected to think of or know everything. Reason I’m here and all that.”

He moved his attention to the stairwell and started to enclose it with blocks. Instead of just leaving it one block wide, however, Gem built it up so that the stairwell wouldn’t be so claustrophobic for his mobs. Right now he only had the Plantlings, but eventually he might summon something larger that would appreciate the extra room.

Chesu followed Gem after a few moments. “Alright, kid. Tip for you. Tell me when you move. You might be able to talk to me across long distances, but I only have as far as my voice will go. I was talking about the Core/Wisp relationship dynamics for quite a while before I realized you moved on.”

Gem thought.

The wisp frowned. “I can, but I choose not to.” Chesu held up a hand to stop Gem from protesting. “No offense to you, kid. It’s just… it helps keep a little boundary. You’re a good kid and I’m sure you’ll do fine. But there’s always a chance you’ll fail and I’d rather not have gotten attached.”

Gem sent the wisp an image of a gem with an exaggeratedly raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, I’ll go to therapy after the world ends and my core dies a painful death.” The words were sharp, but the wisp was grinning. “Would you just hurry up and build already?”

Gem finished enclosing the stairwell all the way up. He was grateful that the Plantlings were able to keep up with his building so well; not having to stop and generate more blocks with them was freeing.

Before he began, Gem looked at his Quest menu. A little over four days had passed since he was given the initial quest. He gave himself two hours to decorate—that was enough time to enjoy himself, but not so much that he’d get lost.

When he was done, he and Chesu examined the Decoration menu.

The Decorations menu was occupied by plants and a few rocks, and there was a huge variety of them. Everything from short grasses to long, to vines, to flowered plants in enough colors to make his Plantlings blend in. There were mosses and mushrooms, and bushes in every shape and style imaginable.

Gem even found a small selection of trees.

The inclusion of grasses meant Gem wouldn’t have to worry about removing all of the grass-covered dirt blocks on his island.

Every item on the Decorations menu clearly stated that it could not be broken down into a block, but that it could be placed and moved and adjusted as needed.

There was no way to know how much time had passed, especially without being able to see the sky. So Gem kept flipping his Quest menu open every once and a while to make sure he was being mindful.

Even still, he overshot his goal by a handful of minutes.

Decorating was like building, only he didn’t have to worry about materials. Because he couldn’t use the decorations for building purposes, they were free.

And Gem did not use them sparingly.

Vines were hung from the walls in strategic places. A veritable forest’s worth of plants lined the pathways through his room and hid every tunnel entrance perfectly. For the paths to the various hidden doorways, Gem made sure the plants there were shorter but still lush. He didn’t want to discourage adventurers from seeking their own doom, but he also didn’t want to lead them to every door.

His boss room was his favorite of all.

Gem still wasn’t sure what type of monster he was going to summon for his boss, so he kept the decor pretty neutral. He made the front half of the room look like an abandoned campsite—the grass here was tamped down and dying, with a pile of twigs that might have once been a campfire. Around them he artfully arranged a handful of small rocks, with their backs facing the back of the room.

Here he crafted a forest so thick, no light could be seen from within.

The trees twisted around one another, fighting for access to the freedom to grow. They stretched out ominously across the front half of the room, branches scraping the ceiling and making it vanish. Under his Alteration menu he found he had the ability to change certain aspects of his blocks to make it seem like it was night. When he applied the Nighttime Sky alteration to the ceiling, a thousand stars burst across the surface of the cobblestone that had changed to a deep maroon.

Gem thought with excitement. He had other options, but none would create the right spooky atmosphere he was going for with his dungeon. They were going to descend to the surface of Sleyn to fight an endless army of monsters. The adventurers who lived needed to be strong of mind and body, or at least be able to fake it long enough to get the job done.

Chesu followed him to the other rooms as Gem adjusted the ceilings. When Gem was done, he asked the wisp what he thought.

“It looks good, kid. I think this is the most well-designed dungeon I’ve seen on Sleyn.”

The wisp laughed. “Listen, kid. If you want to play with the greats you’re going to have to get some experience and level up. I’ve seen some masterful stuff during my time as a guide.”

Gem sent Chesu an image of a sulking crystal, with crossed arms made of gemstone and everything.