After Conor and Pansy learn everything they need and become confident enough to help the divers properly, Naomi can finally rest. However, after one day of doing nothing, she started preparing to create her eleventh floor. She assessed that in around one week, she could have enough mana to start building it. She didn’t plan anything complicated there, just a place as big as she could, to accommodate all the adventurers and the sun elves. But her main focus was on the golems she wanted to place there. It took her a whole week of intense work, and after some compromises, she finally had a working prototype. It was crude even for her, but it moves as intended.

  “This golem is very interesting.” The Smith appeared beside her.

  “It’s a crude first attempt. My goal was to make it work. But the most important part is, could I use it?” Naomi answered.

  “That is a good question.” God Junos and the rest of the gods watching over her join in. “Why did you build it, Dungeon Mistress?”

  “I hope the final war won’t ever happen, and someone will find a peaceful way to end all of it. I understood it’s probably an empty hope, but I still don’t intend to stop believing. Regardless of the outcome, war or peace, I intend to provide adventurers the best training opportunities I can create. Because of the rules, it’s impossible to summon something like this golem I built. While it opens new possibilities for adventurers, this golem is also in the gray area of the law. That's why I'm asking for your decision. Can I use it?”

  “I vote yes!” Tabitha jumped first. “It will be a great surprise for everyone.” She laughed.

  “I’m here more as the witness than the judge. But I expect that they will be looking much better in the future, even if they need to be looking terrifying.” Goddess of Beauty, give her verdict.

  “From the law's point of view, it indeed doesn’t break any rules. It also, as Dungeon Mistress observed, creates new opportunities for those who came here to train.” God Junos said.

  “I will stick to what my wife said. While your craftsmanship is decent, you still should make them much better.”

  The gods Nedo and Varo were here only to witness the upholding of the laws.

  “Then I will give final judgment.” The Lady stepped forward. “While I have some misgivings and doubts about these golems, I also notice that my daughter wants to help us as best she can. Because this golem represents something to which our laws do not directly apply, I propose that people of our world should decide its future. Daughter, please do the next floor as you planned and use this golem. However, if people will be against it, please stop using it, or anything similar.”

  “I promise. Also, I promise to improve it if adventurers like it.” Naomi bowed respectfully.

  “Welcome back, Dungeon Mistress.” Lisuas happily greeted her.

  “Hello, everyone.” Naomi waved her hand to all gathered in the tavern.

  “So the eleventh floor is ready?” The Grand Forge Master said, when she sat across from him.

  “No. I just made some preparations. I'll start the real work in a day or two.” Naomi answered.

  “Dear gods, Dungeon Mistress, we cannot dictate how you build your dungeon, but if you make it too difficult for us, we will not be able to help you properly.”

  “The new floor shouldn’t be hard, just unexpected. And well, after you will see a new golem, you will need to decide if you want more of it or not.”

  “Dungeon Mistress, like I said, we can’t do that.”

  “Not this time. Gods order. Sorry.” Naomi apologize.

  “Dungeon Mistress, please tell me you don’t break any rules?”

  “I don’t. However, I created something that the rules did not apply to. The grey area.”

  “Dungeon Mistress, in the future, you should stay away from those kinds of things, too,” Eriser said.

  “It’s ok. I planned to discuss the new golem with the gods first. If they say no, you will never learn about it.”

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  “That’s better. Not ideal, mind you, but much proper.”

  Just like Naomi predicted two days later, she had enough mana to start her work on the eleventh floor. Once again, she had several goals to complete on this floor, so she created a checklist to make sure she didn't miss anything.

  First was a space. She created a wide, central column to support the ceiling. This and a bit of dungeon magic gave her a space of almost two kilometers in radius. The entrance to the floor was through the column, disguised as a tower made from metal and stone. Spiral stairs made from metal lead to the three floors that could accommodate one hundred adventurers. It was a typical number for an expedition on deeper floors of the dungeon. Fighting a champion was never an easy task, so teams and companies of adventurers band together. After the fight, depending on the dangers of the next floor, they decide whether to split their forces or not.

  And talking about the floor. Naomi needed a place that was difficult to traverse and full of obstacles, but also one where she could store basic supplies for the growing city. For now, she uses sacks of flour, baskets with vegetables, and so on. Naomi hoped that over time, even though the place was in the middle of the desert, people would find a way to produce food. Until then, her dungeon will be their source of food. For this reason, she decided to create a vast city. While she can just drop a sack of grain in the middle of the woods, it feels wrong to her. And what about the rest of the items she plans to scatter across the floor? No, only a city provides the right place for all of that. Moreover, she also wanted to test some ideas that could help build a city around her oasis. The desert was a harsh environment. The sun was blazing hot during the day, and the nights were bitterly cold. And, beside her dungeon, there wasn’t a place nearby to acquire any building materials. And even her dungeon could only provide a small amount of them. The paladins went to the sixth floor every two or three days, yet the construction of their temple and barracks progressed slowly. But there was one thing in her dungeon that was so abundant that it became worthless. It was a metal. But in both worlds, there was not a single civilization that built with metal. Decorations, gates, statues, yes, they were. Entire buildings, let alone a city, have never been built. Only in recent decades have humans begun using steel to construct buildings on Earth, and even then, it was used in combination with other materials. She will need to create something entirely new because she doesn’t have access to concrete or composite materials. So Naomi started by creating a framework for her fictional civilization. She built a small foundry capable of smelting steel, fueled by fire mana stones. The workshop was able to produce ten rectangular steel plates, one meter wide and up to two centimeters thick, as well as other necessary parts, in a day. The molds weren’t ordinary ones. They were modular and could be modified to extent. For example, in the middle was a place where different ornaments could be placed for decorative purposes. From all those parts, builders could build anything. They just need to rivet parts together. However, a city built this way will become ugly, with a post-apocalyptic appearance. Naomi needed art to make it look like a place for people. She built workshops where various paints were produced, mainly white because it reflected the most sunlight. And then she creates examples of decorations. It was a combination of brass gears and plant patterns. Whenever it was possible, gears were moving, pushed by windmills, even if there was no purpose for them.

  When all of this was ready, Naomi let loose her imagination. She closed her eyes and imagined people starting to work to build their city, and live. Years passed before her eyes, then decades. Houses were built and then demolished to make way for new ones. After dozens of years, maybe even one century of imaginary years, Naomi stopped, because she got too tired. When she opened her eyes, she was stunned. She was sitting on the paved road. Its surface is smoothed by decades of walking and pushing carts. Over her head was stretched a white canvas protecting against the sun. The buildings around it were white, with brass gears here and there and plant carvings, all intricately interwoven. Next to the buildings of wealthy people, there were even pots with real plants. In front of many homes were stalls, now mostly empty, but on some of them, small trinkets could be found.

  “Well, my apprentice, you are really worthy of this title.” The Smith said after appearing next to her. He had a wide smile on his face.

  “Thank you. I didn’t know it could end like that.” Naomi answered quietly. “I wanted it to look nice and like a place where people live.”

  “That is the effect of pushing your limit.” He answered.

  “What a shame you need to populate those streets with those monstrous golems.” Goddess Iliana sighted.

  “Yes.” Naomi agrees. “But I don’t have an idea what to use instead of them.”

  “Don’t change your plans, my daughter.” The Lady said. “Let this floor be a lesson for all people. It will show them what they can create, and what they can lose.”

  “Yes, Goddess. I guess I can do that.” Naomi answered.

  After a few moments of wandering through the streets to regain her composure, she started her work anew. Now that the city was ready, she needed to place an exit. She chose a basement of the central tower. However, adventurers will need three keys to open the gate. There were a ten of them in the whole city, and they can be anywhere, but always in plain sight.

  “That's a good joke, sister!” Tabitha laughed. “I wonder how many adventurers will be going through cabinets, chests, and everything, before they realize where the keys are.”

  “The darkest place is under the lamppost.” Naomi smiled.

  Because the city grows without any plan or even a general idea of how the streets should be placed, it becomes a maze. Over time, adventurers will map all streets and alleys, but there are still a few safe spots missing on this floor. Her new golems were bad with stairs, so adventurers could always hide in the basements or upper floors. However, there were few large buildings and it was not safe. Real safe houses had extra medical supplies and food, guarded by dog golems, and were easy to find. Unlike ordinary golems, these were friendly towards humans and could help them to some extent.

  Finally, when everything was ready, she filled the streets and even some homes with the previously designed golems. Now she needs to wait for the first expedition to see how they will react.