It took a while, mainly because it required a whopping 400DP just by itself, but I eventually got the level 5 loot node. Now they at least have a chance of getting a space ring. There are other rings as well such as fire resistance, earth resistance, air resistance, and water resistance. They all have a minor resistance enchantment cast on them so the benefits they offer are negligible at best. I get the distinct impression that on any other world it's the kind of stuff you'd find in any old corner shop. The number and types of rings increases at later levels but these rings are considered basic, at least by the systems standards.

  Another thing I found out is that each floor apparently has a max level. I found this out when the loot node reached level 5 and a pop up appeared telling me the node had reached max level for this floor. I guess I could raise the spawners to level 5. I'm not going to because that would be unfair and nobody would be able to delve. Plus it would make the spider queen level 7, thus making her a lot tougher to deal with. Honestly I wouldn't have raised the loot nodes so high if not for the fact that this world literally has nothing, at least in terms of magical Items. Speaking of which the swords, armor, and other gear now has magical enchantments to go with them.

  Now I just need another party to come by and give me a few DP so I can put down the iron and coal nodes. After that I will officially be done with the first floor. As a matter of fact I'm almost done with the second floor as well. I might raise a few of the herbalism nodes by one level. Aside from plopping down a few more spawners, assuming I can have more than one other spawner, and getting them to level five that's all the work I plan to put into the second floor. All of that put together will actually be less than the DP I spent getting a single loot spawner to max level, in fact it's not even close.

  I only have to wait about a day and a half for the next group to arrive. It's the raid group again. They're mostly all level 2 now. There are a few raid members still at level one. That's mainly because the don't seem to do anything but tag along. Ordinarily I wouldn't have high hopes for a level 2 party clearing the first floor but they might actually do it thanks to sheer numbers. Such is the strength of raid groups that even a low level group if it has enough members can get surprisingly far. There is a limit of course. No group of level 2s is going to make it to the second floor boss much less beat it. If there were fifty or a hundred of them maybe but not just these 10.

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  The raid goes about how you'd imagine, right up until they start running into the spiders. It's not a dead stop, but the progress slows to a crawl. They may be level 2 but it's clear their battle experience is limited. Eventually exhaustion set in causing group cohesion to all but vanish. Some want to leave some want to go back to fighting the snakes which are "easier to deal with" and a few insist they press on. Then one of them turns and says "I refuse to believe that those kids made it further than use". Which gets my full attention because I'm pretty sure I know which kids they're talking about. One of the others soon speaks up and all but confirms it. "Look around" she says. "Where would you even find berries in a place like this? Unless you're suggesting that they're further underground." "Where else could they have gotten those berries this time a year?" he half asks half yells. "I'm pretty sure those don't even grow around here."

  I learned two important things in that conversation. The first being that Eric's group is keeping secrets from the others. Otherwise they would know about my second floor. The second is that things in that town aren't as peaceful as I once thought. I mean it was never a bastion of purity, which is why I mainly kept to myself when I was alive … well, human anyway. It does seem however that the end of the world has not exactly improved the situation. Not that they ever said or did anything illegal in my dungeon. They, or at least the four people leading the group, just give off this vibe that says they're willing to do whatever it takes to survive regardless of everyone else.

  Then again it could also be my dungeon instincts acting up, influencing my opinion. It's all I can do to not immediately throw everything I have at them as soon as they enter. A feeling which only gets worse the longer they are in the dungeon. I only noticed it now because they've been in the dungeon way longer than usual. They even made it to the fourth chest, and almost made it to the fifth. Their progress after they began encountering the spiders slowed to a crawl though which meant they were in the dungeon for literal hours longer than usual. The fact that a few of them kept insisting they press on didn't help anything.

  Still, they did give me plenty of DP and that's what matters. I place the coal node about halfway down the main path and the iron node I place near the spider queen's boss room. Then I upgrade both to level 2 and watch as the purity of the ore increases slightly. The next thing I do is place down a couple of fox spawners. I only upgrade them to level 4 for now because I don't have enough DP to upgrade them to level 5.

  I don't get any notifications about reaching the spawner limit which causes me to wonder if the amount of spawners I'm allowed to use doubles each time. That would make sense, after all the total area is not exactly increasing linearly. Instead it seems to increase exponentially. This means that the third floor will no doubt be huge and require a great many spawners.