Su Yao left after finding Uzo together with Arthur and Leya. Before leaving, she specifically instructed the waiter to serve them one of every dish on the menu.
Not only that, but she thoughtfully arranged for a Maid to stand behind a certain someone the whole time, holding up a “Record Crystal”.
It went without saying who this was meant to torment. She hoped that little she-devil could keep up her “tough talk” when they met again tomorrow!
These days, the Labyrinth Tavern’s menu had become much more varied, and the credit naturally belonged to the three Noble Chefs under Miss Hilvi, who had come to learn and exchange skills.
They combined Spices, White Granulated Sugar, and various other seasonings with Monster Ingredients, developing many new and popular specialty dishes.
Thanks to this, the Labyrinth Tavern was packed as soon as it opened every day.
Not only Adventurers, but also many commoners from nearby, as well as wealthy merchants and nobles, all came here to dine.
With so many people coming, the fact that monsters were used as ingredients naturally couldn’t be kept a secret for long.
However, unlike expected, after this Dungeon Secret was exposed, business at the Labyrinth Tavern wasn’t affected at all.
Most Adventurers were just commoners—if it was edible and tasty, they didn’t care what the ingredient was.
Those who came for the reputation were swayed by the tavern’s atmosphere, and after one bite, they, too, accepted it.
That being said, this matter still had quite an impact.
After all, in this world, there were very few who could afford to eat at a tavern, while the number of people going hungry in this land was surprisingly high—the reasons need not be said.
Once people learned that monsters could be used as ingredients, they tried catching and eating monsters from outside the Dungeon. Unsurprisingly, they all ended up “poisoned”.
Some curious folk began to investigate the cause, and eventually found the answer.
Within the Dungeon’s cycle, “Magic” was a crucial element. The corpses of dead monsters had their bodies’ Magic easily absorbed.
Thus, after their deaths, it only took a short while for the Dungeon to completely drain them of Magic, turning them into safe ingredients.
But for monsters living outside the Dungeon, after death, the Magic inside them dissipated at roughly the same rate as their bodies decayed.
Eating them would naturally cause an abnormal surge of Magic in one’s body, resulting in chaos.
Of course, the above is just a general conclusion.
The size of the monster and the distribution of Magic within its body also significantly affected its “toxicity”, but there’s no need to go into detail here.
The Poisoning Incident not only deepened a minority’s understanding of monsters and Dungeons, but also let the majority know that all those “monsters” in Su Yao’s Dungeon were actually edible.
Thanks to this, more and more people were lingering in her Dungeon.
Though both DP income and Gold Coin revenue had increased considerably, relying on just two floors of the Dungeon to accommodate all these people was a bit too much.
Su Yao had no choice but to consider opening the third floor of the Dungeon.
She had already prepared for expansion, setting the environment as a mine, and purchasing an ore vein before the Dungeon Inn was even completed.
Because Magic Ores were such important resources, Su Yao hadn’t planned to open up this floor of the Dungeon to the public until now.
The main design had already taken shape.
[Original Ore Vein Full of Magic Power]: A long ore vein buried in the Dungeon that absorbs Magic. Once placed, it can generate “Magic Crystals” or all sorts of ores within a certain range (no limit, but affected by Magic concentration), and randomly spawns earth-type monsters in a wide area (0/500).
Each floor of the Dungeon can purchase only one such ore vein, priced at 100,000 DP, or 70,000 after a discount.
“Magic Crystals” are what are called Magic Ores, but they are unstable and, under certain conditions, transform into “Magic Ores” as follows:
In a dry environment, they become “Fire Crystal Stones”; in a humid environment, “Water Source Stones”; in frozen ground, “Ice Condensation Stones”; when exposed to light, “Fluorescent Stones”; and when struck by lightning, “Tourmaline”.
If there are other ores near a “Magic Crystal”, it will generate corresponding “Mutant Ores”: near Iron Ore, a small amount of Iron Ore will be produced; near Gold, a small amount of Gold Ore will be produced…
Just imagine if Su Yao’s Dungeon had a gold ore vein… Unfortunately, her Dungeon did not (truly tragic).
Back to the point, the way “Magic Crystals” change their form depending on the surrounding magical elements reminded her of a certain kind of monster from a certain pocket monster game…
But having this ore vein alone wasn’t enough. While it could make the Dungeon endlessly produce Magic Ores, the types of ores produced lacked stability.
If she relied only on this ore vein, Su Yao would basically only get low-purity “Fire Crystal Stones” and “Water Source Stones”.
The purity of Magic Ores was directly related to the concentration of elements around the “Magic Crystals”.
She needed to arrange additional “environments” around this ore vein to affect elemental concentrations and ensure ore quality.
As for how to design things so the produced “Magic Crystals” would be more concentrated, that was another technical challenge.
Once again, she reserved a massive hollow space within the largest expanded third-floor Dungeon.
The “straight-line” [Original Ore Vein Full of Magic Power] was folded into the shape of a “mountain” since she didn’t need to reserve too much space for a labyrinth.
This hollow was even more spacious than the cave hall on the second floor.
She stood this “mountain” up in the hollow, keeping equal distances between the three protruding ore veins.
Then, by spending 30,000 DP, she purchased three “Large Underground Rock Pillars” to enclose the three ore veins.
That gave Su Yao three “ore pillars”. Next, she needed to purchase appropriate “monster spawn points” to influence the “Magic Crystals” produced on these pillars.
Considering the types of Magic Ores she needed, she first spent 50,000 DP to buy four “Lava Waterfalls” and one “Super Large Magma Pool”—a combo spawn point, producing “Salamander” monsters (limit 0/50).
Lava cascaded from one side of the hollow’s stone wall into the magma pool. Of course, the lava circulation at the bottom of the magma pool and inside the stone wall was assisted by Magic.
The magma soaked one “ore pillar”. Under the heavy influence of fire elements, most Magic Ores on this pillar became “Fire Crystal Stones”.
She did the same with another “ore pillar”: Su Yao spent 50,000 DP to buy four “Dark River Waterfalls” and one “Large Underground Pond”, also a combo spawn point, producing “Water Salamander” monsters (limit 0/50).
That stabilized the production of “Water Source Stones”.
For the last “ore pillar”, the plan had been to set up a “Large Underground Glacier”, but to create an “ice and fire” environment, she would need a massive “Magic Barrier” to insulate against heat; otherwise, production of both “Fire Crystal Stones” and “Ice Condensation Stones” would be affected.
With DP limited, and although “Ice Condensation Stones” were very useful, they weren’t an urgent need at the moment, so she shelved the idea for now.
Under the influence of “lava” and “underground water”, the only ores the last pillar could produce were either “Water Source Stones” or “Fire Crystal Stones”, though the purity was somewhat questionable…
70,000 DP plus 30,000 DP, and another two times 50,000—that was a total of 200,000 DP!
Still, it was all worth it to be able to mine.
But right now, opening the third floor would mean sharing these “ore pillars” with Adventurers.
How could that be? She had only just started enjoying mining herself!
That being said, it wouldn’t do to show others a big pie they couldn’t have a bite of.
Helplessly, she could only put a little more thought into the Dungeon’s design.
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