Minor housekeeping after a month of neglect

"Well, first things first, let's see what's next for the summoning circle." Summoning Aethane completed the requirement for the previous level, so you confirm the upgrade. A moment later the abishai file in and near instantly complete the job.

Unique Structure: Summoning Circle (Level 10)
Level 10: Can summon powerful outsiders as well as groups of minor outsiders with lieutenants. Can summon willing souls.
Upgrade to Planar Gate: 500 obsidian, 500 brimstone, 500 manasilver.

That's odd: it's typically required more intangible goals. "Say, Kay, do you think your mom can source us some brimstone?"

"Huh?" The dragoness' unfocused eyes snap to you at the mention of her name. "Didn't you want to 'keep a low profile' or something?"

"Alright, I suppose we'll keep an eye out for it when we're next out of the dungeon." Next, you open up the tower menu and select the next level, something you've been holding off on for the last month to keep your head down.

Unique Structure: Wizard's Tower (Level 3)
Level 3: Allows specialized rooms to be added to the tower. Gathers and stores mana at a moderate rate.
Upgrade to Level 4: 5,000 stone, 2,500 wood, 1500 ore, 1000 manasilver, 500 black iron, 250 ironwood, 1 mana crystal (large), Elite Boss status

"Anyone know what 'ironwood' is?" Everyone shakes their heads. You cast a hopeful glance at Ikaria, but she just shrugs. "Well, I guess that's yet another thing we'll have to keep an eye out for then. Anyone have opinions on what we do with the three new floors?" Your champions crowd around you at the suggestion, each staring intently as you scroll through the menu, occasionally letting out little "ooh"s and "what about that one"s. "Well, that's all of them. Thoughts?"

"Master," you raise an eyebrow at the maid speaking up: it's been a while since she made any suggestions in this sort of situation. "What about the dungeon? I'd like a place where I could train new recruits how best to serve you, now that your lieutenants are all confined to their levels. It would've been useful back when I still hadn't devoted myself to you." The matter-of-fact way she says this is irresistible, and you push her to her knees where she dutifully shows you what she means by her devotion.

"I mean I'm not about to say no to that idea. Anyone else object?" You half-expect Celestina to say something, but she shakes her head and flushes slightly with unfocused eyes. Everyone agreed, you designate one of the new levels as per the lavender attendant's suggestion.

The first decision made, the dragoness speaks up. "What about the spe—"

"Ooh, what about the spellcasting focus?" Ari butts in over the regal beauty, who just chuckles and plays with her hair in response. The room they're both interested in allows you to spend dungeon mana on various spells which can be cast remotely, allowing you some degree of intervention from the comfort of your throne room. "It would be nice to be able to do a bit more when we're watching adventurers go through our dungeon."

"Hah! She just wants a chance to beat me, not that it's going to happen." Sera laughs and claps Ari on the back. "Let's do it."

"Tina? Mary?" The two of them shrug and nod, so you confirm the second room. "Okay, anyone have thoughts for the last one? I was thinking of just moving the altar there to clean things up a bit." Most of the women shake their heads and shrug, evidently out of ideas.

"What about the otherworldly smithy?" Tina speaks up, looking a little nervous as she does.

"The room certainly looks neat, but we don't even have a smith. What would we do with it? Anyone you know of we could recruit to run the place?" She smacks her head while looking at you like you're clueless and laughs a bit.

"Remember where we found that necklace from? Everything said that Aethane was a legendary smith. Not only could she run it, but maybe she'd appreciate it as a 'welcome to the dungeon' present?" The daemonologist counts with her fingers as she makes her points.

"That's... actually a great idea. Thanks Tina." You squeeze her to your side; she gives out a little sigh of happiness and leans into you.

"I agree! It was so nice to have the library here. I'm sure that she'll appreciate something similar." Mariel perks up at the suggestion. "We should go find her and give her the good news!" Nobody else speaks up to object, so you confirm the last room in your soon-to-be ten-floor tower.

"Sounds good: we'll tell her when it's done assuming nobody runs into her before then. Now, let's see what I've been putting off in the last month..." you bring back several popups that you dismissed over the last few weeks as part of your effort to do absolutely no work.

Otherworldly Attention
Your domain has caught the attention of outsiders both above and below. Archfiends and archangels use you as a pawn in their schemes while lesser beings seek to gain power in your service.
Choose Underlings: Spider Daemons (Daemonic), Ice Daemons (Daemonic), Nephilim (Angelic + Daemonic), Lantern Archons (Angelic)
Choose Offering: Information, Enchanted Staff (Caster - Arcane), Enchanted Longbow (Archer - High STR)

Otherworldly Attention
Your domain has caught the attention of outsiders both above and below. Archfiends and archangels use you as a pawn in their schemes while lesser beings seek to gain power in your service.
Choose Underlings: Ice Daemons (Daemonic), Nephilim (Angelic + Daemonic), Aasimar (Angelic), Lantern Archons (Angelic)
Choose Offering: Information, Enchanted Dagger (Caster - Daemonologist), Enchanted Sword (Fighter - General)

"Anything catch any of your eyes?" The many champions behind you scan through the options, although their eyes instantly dart to the offerings.

"Say, what about the longbow for Tlax? She hasn't gotten anything nice yet: she's still using that bow she picked up from Akserrak's minion a while back." Mariel speaks up. "And then the dagger for Tina? That way everyone has at least something, now that Tina gave me her old bow." She bites on her nail for a moment. "Oh, except Kara I guess. Do you need anything?"

"I'm good, but thanks, cutie!" The dragoness wraps her arms around the dark angel from behind, rubbing her head into the fluffy red wings in front of her. Mariel squirms and blushes in the princess' arms.

"I like Mary's idea, but can we really afford to pass up at least some info?" Ari is pragmatic, as always. "After all, if we're getting back into things, we'll need to know what we're dealing with."

"I think we should be fine: Prometheia is supposed to be on information duty right now, and I already have some ideas on how to track down an adventurer to work with. Might as well make sure everyone gets something special." You move to select the two items that Mary suggested. "Did anyone have any opinions on the minions? No? Okay, spiders and lanterns it is."

"Eww, why spiders?" Tina shudders a bit at the thought. "Can't it be, like, not spiders? Maybe, I don't know, anything other than spiders?"

"I figure it's time to add some new dungeon levels, and they would fit well with the scorpions and maybe the shappazus in a sort of creepy crawly level." You grin and ruffle her hair. "Still remember getting swarmed by the scorpions a few months back?" The ex-adventurer shudders, and the women who have been monsters for much longer laugh at her reaction. "Anyways, you can always just not go there if you want to avoid them. Besides, for all we know maybe they'll look different. They're daemons, after all!" The daemonogist still looks somewhat bothered, but she shrugs in assent and you confirm your choices.

The portal opens in front of you and a warm golden light fills the room. Lights bob in golden cages as a stream of lantern archons pour into the room. "Greetings from Elysium, master." A disembodied voice emanates from a particularly large archon bobbing in front of you.

"Welcome to the lair. If you wouldn't mind just finding your way to the boss room for now, we'll get you situated shortly." The lantern gives a deep bob that resembles a sort of bow or nod, then the whole group starts pouring through the nearby portal as more and more emerge. You open the sheet of one of them as they go.

Lantern Archon (Level 20)
Monster, Angel, Magical, Explicit
These magical beings are souls wrought into golden frames in the forges of Elysium. They are potent spellcasters, and other angels consider them somewhat mischievous.

The light in the room fades as the portal closes, and then a reddish hue takes over the formerly golden portal as the room fills with the sound of skittering. Celestina shrinks into you as a long, hairy leg emerges, then a large spider pulls herself out of the portal. Her lower body is roughly three feet tall and consists of an abdomen roughly one metre in radius surrounded by huge, hairy legs. Connected to that abdomen, instead of a spider's head, is a woman's bare torso, with bronze skin and red eyes. Her mouth contains two vicious-looking fangs, and she sinks her torso into a bow as she sees you, her white hair dangling to the floor.

"My lady Arachne bids you good fortune, master. We are yours to command." More and more spider daemons, a mixture of men and women, pull themselves through the portal behind her. You give them roughly the same greeting as the lantern archons, and soon after they form a procession from the summoning circle to the exit portal, more and more spiders emerging one by one.

Spider Daemon (Level 23)
Monster, Daemon, Magical, Explicit
These daemons are said to be the offspring of Arachne, lady of the swarm and queen of all spiders, with a mortal man. They are fast, cunning, and have inhuman physical abilities.

When the last one leaves, the daemonologist finally opens her eyes and shivers a bit. "Well, let me know which dungeon level they end up living in so I can never go there again." She lets out a nervous laugh as colour starts to return to her face. "They didn't actually look all that bad from the one peek I took, but the skittering..."

"Well, let's see if this makes you feel any better about the situation!" You pick up a jagged black dagger lying on the ground in the middle of the summoning circle.

Belipham's Nail
This cruel dagger supposedly originated as a fingernail pried from the pit fiend Belipham. Its latent daemonic energy enhances the abilities of any daemonologist who wields it. Although the dagger has never actually been recorded in any known sacrifices, its jagged blade evokes the impression in any who see it.
Effects
Taskmaster – Your minor daemons are summoned with five additional levels.
Martyrdom – You may designate your minor daemon(s) to receive any damage that you receive which matches their resistances or immunities.

"That's... a bit creepy, to be honest. I guess I should've seen that coming with a daemon dagger." Her face brightens a bit. "It looks useful though: thanks!"

"We'll have to hand this one to Tlax next time we see her." You pick up the tall longbow lying nearby and take a moment to inspect it: it's far thicker than most bows, carved to look like a raven in flight and with no visible bowstring.

Visheena's Multitude
This tall longbow is said to have been used by the huntress Visheena to slay the golden hart in one shot, then by the twenty-armed cyclops Girion to bring down ten foes with one draw. Its magic allows several arrows to be launched at once without mutual interference.
Effects
Many-stringed – Visheena's Multitude is strung with threads of pure magic, and anyone who draws the bow may nock as many arrows simultaneously as they wish, each drawn on a separate thread.

Only one item from your backlog remains: seeing what's happened to your fame in the past month. You open the menu and, predictably, the results aren't great.

Fame: 21,795
Recent Activity
Provided by adventurers in your dungeon: +7,412
People are talking about you: +5,064

Only a little over twelve thousand fame over the past month... well, that's what you signed up for when you stopped doing things, after all. You break out into a chuckle, and Ari gives you a questioning glance.

"Oh, I was just moping about only getting twelve thousand fame, and then reflecting on much things have changed that it feels disappointing that I got that much without even trying. Well, Kay, in happier news," the dragoness opens her eyes as you mention her name: apparently she had been napping against the wall. "No fame rewards for meeting your mom or recruiting you. That means we've apparently kept things under wraps. This system is rather convenient from time to time."

"So, what are you planning on spending that fame on?" Mary takes her eyes off of Tlax's new bow and looks over with curiosity. "Want to try out Fae Liegelord?"

"I'd like to get there eventually, but I think for now I'll just create two mostly-empty dungeon levels to make some room for the newcomers, and then we can sort out the rest later." Creating the two levels costs 11,000 fame in total, and you keep from buying any themes, bosses, or any other form of customization: for now, they're just two relatively featureless cave systems as the last two dungeon levels to house the newcomers. A proper revamp can come later when you have more fame and a few more minion types.

"Well, that should be it for the dungeon upgrades. I'm going to take a bit of a break to summon Zoxxzzixxaith: it's been quite some time since we spoke, and he asked me to summon him again last time. After that, what say we spend some mana and give everyone some upgrades? The tower's practically overflowing and other than Tlax none of you have even had the chance yet. You'll likely all get the chance to choose your path somewhat, so think about what sort of things you might like." Everyone nods and files out of the room, some with apprehension and others with anticipation as they silently ponder the choice ahead. A moment later, only you, Ikaria, and Zalreanne remain.

"So, how are you going to call up Lord Consonants anyways? I didn't know that you could call up daemon lords already! I've never met one: I wonder what he'll be like!"

"I normally can't, but I met him on a quest one time: remind me to tell you the story some day. Unfortunately you can't stay for this: introducing you to a daemon lord probably violates the whole secrecy thing."

"Oh, pooh. It's always mom this, mom that!" Kay gives a dramatic sigh and rolls her eyes, but makes for the portal nonetheless. "But you're introducing me after we get this stupid super spy mission done with." You give her a thumbs up and she steps through the portal in her usual, swaying gait, then you groan and feed your maid one last treat before retrieving the summoning stone.