Amara had gone through all of her mob’s loot, except for her boss, Dandylion. She pulled the boss’s loot up and looked through it. It surprisingly had loot options from the other mobs. She then filled in the drops and took a step back to review them carefully.

Dandylion

Copper Coin ( 1/1 )

Moss Eye (common) ( 1/2 )

Flytrap Leaf (common) ( 1/2 )

Wooden Needle (common) ( 1/2 )

Floating Shell (common) ( 1/2 )

Confusion Petal (uncommon) ( 1/4 )

Lions Claw (uncommon) ( 1/4 )

Plant Lion Hide Boots (Plant Lion Set Piece) (unique) ( 1/10 )

Plant Lion Hide Gloves (Plant Lion Set Piece) (unique) ( 1/10 )

Plant Lion Hide Shirt (Plant Lion Set Piece) (unique) ( 1/10 )

Plant Lion Hide Pants (Plant Lion Set Piece) (unique) ( 1/10 )

Amara was happy with how the loot rate turned out. And she was delighted to find out that her boss had a set. This would definitely attract adventurers if nothing else would.

“The loot drop rate for the mobs are done Nyx.”

With that, Nyx, who was sitting at a small table and drinking a cup of tea, pulled her attention to Amara.

“Very well. We have 8 more hours left, so let’s move on.” With a snap of her fingers, Nyx brought up another screen with the title, Dungeon Research.

Amara scanned the dungeon research page and was practically salivating. The research page had possibilities upon possibilities that could help her dungeon.

“Are you happy?” Nyx’s tone was teasing.

“Extremely.” Next to the research options, there were time costs. Of course, things like this could not be purchased. It would give the rich dungeon core players a leg up on everybody else. From what she could guess, the time would just increase every level of research within that branch she completes. “So Nyx, how does research work?”

“Alright, every dungeon core has the options to conduct a single research option at a timer, per their tier level.”

“So, at Tier 1, I can only do one research at a time, and Tier 3, I can do three?”

“Correct, you will be able to increase the amount of research options at a time each time you level up a Tier. Your research is permanent and will be applied throughout your entire dungeon automatically.”

This will be very helpful as her dungeon grows. It will also be beneficial when she is out of the game, as one hour in real-world time is worth 24 hours in gain time. So when she had to be in the real world, dungeon research would be completed faster than in-game.

“Is there any way that I could potentially speed up my research time? Other than the Enhanced Research research option?”

“Well, other than that, you can also use dungeon tokens on research.”

“Wait, what are dungeon tokens?”

“Dungeon tokens are essentially the game version of a V Coin. They can be used for rerolling, turned into a V Coin to be used outside the game, and can refill resource coins to the max. They can be gained in four different ways. First, every time you level up a Tier, you game 5 dungeon tokens. Second, the tokens can be gained randomly through resource generation. Third, they are rarely gained through defeating adventurers. And fourth, through achievements” After Nyx finished explaining that, she pulled up Amara’s dungeon status sheet, displaying the changes.

Anaphiel

Dungeon Core

Dungeon Type Nature

Rank 1 Tier 1

0 xp

100,000 xp to next Tier

Resource Coins: 180/1,000

Currency: 0 copper 0 silver 0 gold 0 platinum

Dungeon Tokens: 5

There were three new things on her status page, resource coins, game currency, and dungeon tokens. Before Amara had a chance to ask what the recent changes mean’t, Nyx had already started talking.

“Now, why don’t we try something. I want you to go back into the dungeon research page and choose a research branch to start researching.”

Amara figured Nyx was trying to lead her to something, decided to follow what she said. Amara pulled the dungeon research page back up and scrolled through the different types of research options. Then she found the Enhanced Research, research option. She remembered that the enhanced research option would speed up when she decided to run through the research branches. So, she would select the enhanced research, then maybe traps or enhanced environment would be next. The traps research would unlock traps as a buildable option within the dungeon. While the enhanced environment would make the environment itself more naturally dangerous and more full, making it feel like the environment was real.

Amara pulled up the Enhanced Research option and selected the begin research button. The moment that she did that, a bright and sparkly light, with bells chiming, began to sound. She flinched back in surprise at the noise and light, and a new screen appeared in front of her.

Achievement Unlocked

Beginners Lesson - Successfully complete the tutorial

Reward: 1,000 XP, 100 resource coins, 1 dungeon token

She looked at the screen, to Nyx, who was laughing, then back to the screen. Her mind instantly connected that what she had been doing so far in the game was the tutorial. But, as she was on a time limit, Amara decided to push it back into her mind.

She had plans for the dungeon token she just gained. Amara opened the dungeon research page and pulled up an already researching, enhanced research branch. She then dumped the dungeon token that she had just acquired into it, completing the research. Amara then pulled up the Traps branch, selected it, and watched as the timer started to countdown. Traps would be completed in 10 hours and 59 minutes. Adventurers would have access to her dungeon in 6 hours, so the research would be completed after the adventurers officially arrived.

With that taken care of, Amara closed down all of the screens still open. After which, she pulled up the achievements screen.

“So Nyx, I have achievements that I can unlock? I can actually see what achievements I’m able to unlock?” Amara wouldn’t usually go after achievements, but apparently, in CMS, achievements can lead to gains that can really help her with her dungeon.

“Yep, there is an achievement screen that you can look at.” Nyx snapped her fingers, and once again, a screen appeared with the word Achievement written on it.

“Do I have anything else that I need to do before adventurers arrive?”

“Nope, you’ve finished setting up your dungeon.”

With that, Amara decided to spend the 6 hours that she had left looking through the achievement screen, as well as anything else she could think of, until the countdown finished and the adventurers arrived. She was pretty excited to finally get started. CMS was so far looking to be the best ever game she had ever played.