In the oasis, time moves slowly. Adventurers were pressing forward with the exploration of the eighth floor. Blanc scrolls and ink started to become one of the most sought-after treasures. Until now, there were two or three places in the dungeon where you could find them. Now, however, Naomi needed to add a few more places to meet the demand. Caravan from the south always carries scrolls too, but there weren’t enough of them to last for the whole three months.

  It took the adventurers a whole month to finally get used to the spell-casting golems and begin exploring the floor. Golems built by Naomi used a variety of elements, some known, some rare, and a few unheard of. It was a paradise for mages, who could learn about a new magic. For the rest of the adventurers, however, they were a nightmare. Even despite Naomi's effort to make sure the golems would only try to disarm or knock over an adventurer, they were still cats. It was an imitation of cats, but still they were nimble, made ambushes, and cheats.

  “We found the fucker!” Jilax shouted, entering the plaza under the pyramid. Adventurers from his team were battered and bruised, and their armours were visibly damaged. However, they also carried the head of a destroyed golem and a figurine of a cat made from copper. It was the fourth sculpture missing to unlock the vault.

  “At last,” Crall said. “Those cats are real manance.”

  “I don’t complain. It’s good hunting ground.” Iason said. He was sitting next to the campfire where a boar was slowly roasted.

  “Those cats are beautiful. What a shame we can't tame them.” Nonisa sighted.

  “They are objects, so you can’t tame them. However, I’m working on a solution to make them work outside the dungeon.” Said hobbit artificer occupied with taking notes. He was a grand master enchanter and artificer. His works were sought everywhere. After learning about golems, he dropped everything and went to On Taram.

  “If someone can do it, it’s most likely you, Grand Master Unroh,” Nonisa answered.

  “I will be the first. But it’s not so complicated as it seems.” Grand master answered. “The Grand Forge Master is right. Arrays have two parts. One is for moving the golem, and the second connects to the dungeon and tells how it should move. I need to find which is which and substitute the second part with the control array.”

  “Grand Master. If I understand your explanation, that will mean the golem will stop acting like the animal he imitates. Yes?”

  “Regretably, yes. Preserving or recreating those patterns will need to wait. It adds unnecessary complications and should suffice as a weapon against the undead.”

  “I like that idea. I volunteer to help you, sir, with your first golem.” Crall said.

  “I will remember. However, it won’t happen anytime soon. Properly understanding those arrays will take me a year.”

  “We Northmen stood our ground for one hundred years. We can wait a year or two. Imagine every soldier having one golem. It will double our forces just like that.”

  “For that, you will need to wait a decade or two instead of one or two years.” Jilax poured cold water on his dreams. “But I agree that it’s something worth waiting for. However, now that we have the last figurine, I propose to see what the Dungeon Mistress hides there.”

  “We can do that. The meat isn’t ready yet. Let’s go there.” Nurmela stands.

  On the corners of the altar, they placed four sculptures of cats. The first one, made of gold, shows a sleeping cat. The silver one cat plays with a ball of yarn. The iron sculpture depicted a cat pushing a cup over the edge. The last one was made from copper and shows a cat lying in the box. After placing them, the hatch was opened, and a small chest was revealed. When they carefully opened the lid, they stopped for a moment.

  “Tell me it’s not a trap or illusion,” Jilax whispered.

  “I don’t see any wires or pressure plates,” Iason whispered.

  “There isn’t any spell or enchantment cast on the chest or altar,” Hranfast added.

  “Everyone, prepare for running when I take the chest.” Crall decided, and the adventurers moved to the exit. After taking the chest, nothing happens, and they return safely.

  “What do you find?” Nonisa asked.

  “Chest full of gold,” Nurmela answered. Adventurers dropped whatever they were doing and surrounded the leaders of the expedition to see the treasure.

  “How much gold is there?” Someone asked when the lid was opened.

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  “Let’s find out,” Nurmela said, and they started counting. It was a few coins more than the number of adventurers. But when she added non-adventurer supporters, numbers matched.

  “It will be one gold coin per person.” She announced.

  “Isn’t there more gold than us?” Hemir asked.

  “It is. But when you count all the people here, the numbers match.” Nurmela answered. “And you know how adamant our Dungeon Mistress is about being fair.”

  “Just asking to be sure. One whole gold is a nice bonus anyway. For this expedition, we will get something around two gold coins too.” He answered.

  “Don’t forget, it’s not a one-time reward. Every time you come here, you will get one coin.” Jilax observed. All gathered started looking at the reward differently. Yes, it was just a gold coin. For the frontliners, it’s not a big sum. They sometimes spend a whole gold to repair their armour. But now it was just like, Dungeon Mistress was repairing their gear for free. Supporting adventurers also greatly benefited. Their rewards weren’t high, and many had debts to pay for their first armour and weapon. Now it has become much easier to do, or to buy a better one, and become a frontliner.

  Naomi needed a month and a half to acquire enough mana for the next floor. Through that time, there were two more deaths. However, this time she decided not to let herself be overwhelmed by grief. She paid her respect to fallen adventurers, placing flowers next to the monument. She also stood on the wall and observed the funeral pyre until it burned out.

  “You are taking it better than the last time, Dungeon Mistress.” Paoli approached her at the second funeral.

  “I don’t. However, I decided I should respect them for their choice. All your choices.” She turned to her. On her cheeks were tears.

  “Thank you, Dungeon Mistress. It’s all that we need. Beside the chest, or two full of gold.”

  “Like always, you try joking no matter the time or the place.” Naomi sighted. “But I hope your wishes will come true.”

  “Dungeons are places where dreams come true.”

  “If you forget that you need to pay for them with blood and tears.”

  “It happens everywhere, not only in the dungeons, Dungeon Mistress.”

  “Yes.” Naomi agreed.

  Besides those two breaks, the whole time needed to acquire the necessary amount of mana went by peacefully. In order not to waste time, she gradually prepared notes and things that might be useful on the next floor. She was hoping that establishing a new floor would become much faster that way.

  Naomi approached the tavern owner, who was standing behind the counter.

  “Hello, Lisusa. I’m going to build my next floor. If anyone is looking for me, I should be back in about a week.”

  “Hello, Dungeon Mistress. I will inform everyone immediately. Good luck. I count on some juice stories or maybe some prank, after the return of the adventurers from the new floor.” She smiled.

  “We will see when it will be ready. Who knows what will happen? I don’t have a detailed plan for it. Just a general idea of what I need.”

  “Good plan, Dungeon Mistress.” Lisusa nodded. “The best jokes are the ones that just happen.” She winked, and Naomi laughed.

  The border of the eighth floor was a cliff. The whole ancient city was built on top of the plateau. To get to the lower floor, adventurers need to reach the opposite end of the eighth floor. There was a giant tree entwined by lianas, creating steps. A new floor would also be a jungle, but with much more variety of environment. It wasn’t entirely for hindering adventurers' movement, but to create the right places needed to grow medical herbs. After Nonisa's little mental breakdown, Naomi realises she needs, or to be exact, adventurers and people who need a source of medicine. That's why she went through the list of available herbs to cover whatever she could. Most were common ones, not too hard to find, and some could be grown in the gardens. Some of them were rare due to the requirements that had to be met to cultivate them. Even Naomi needed some work to ensure a proper place for them. Moreover, they were especially guarded and difficult to reach. Rules were strict, and an effort to get a reward needed to be appropriate to the reward.

  The main type of golem would be monkeys. However, Naomi decided on a small experiment. The dungeon masters weren’t allowed to summon people as guardians. It was mostly because the gods didn’t want to encourage fights between sentient beings. But after Arch Worlock creates his orcs and whatever else, knowledge of how to fight something wielding a weapon becomes important. Summoning orcs or even undead was out of the question, too. Naomi didn't know if it was even possible, but to try, she would have to turn to the dark side. And she was sure she would be deceived anyway. However, golems create a third option. They weren’t seen as living creatures, and they don’t need to look like elves, dwarves, or humans. It could be just walking armour. The problem was that she had to build everything from scratch. Until now, she was taking patterns from animals and copying them onto the golems. For walking armour, she doesn’t have anything to imitate. So, for now, she upgraded monkeys a little. She gives them small spears to throw at adventurers. She also painted their faces with tribal designs and hid small totems among the tree branches. On the ground level, there were a lot of animals for hunting, and fish swam in the ponds and one stream. One was a particular one. Shallow, only a knee deep, with in the middle, the rock covered with thick moss and some plants. She planted a special herb on it. She also needed a guardian for it, so she placed a golem alligator. That would be another test. She was interested in how a typical golem would work underwater. She waterproofed the necessary parts of it, but not the whole machine.

  At the end, she added one more monkey. This one would be some roaming boss monster. Mostly annoying, but this one time she decided to take a look to see the adventurers' faces when they saw it.

  “I like your new floor, sister!” The goddess Tabitha appeared.

  “Thank you. I hope I don’t overdo with my floor?”

  “It’s ok. You circumvented the rules splendidly. Good work.” The goddess, known for that, praised her.

  “I hope monkey beastmen won’t be angry for that.”

  “Some of them hunt monkeys in the real world, so it will be very strange if they start complaining. And if they do, the last monkey will show them what I think about their hypocrisy.” The goddess answered.

  “Then I hope they will be wise enough to keep their mouth shut.” Naomi laugh.