The design of the main Dungeon wasn’t particularly difficult.
Centered around a massive hollow space supported by three “Mine Pillars,” Su Yao laid out the Dungeon in a pattern reminiscent of “tree rings.”
This type of Dungeon was quite common: four layers of “concentric” stone walls formed three circular Mine Tunnels for explorers.
Since the outermost tunnel was too far from the Magic Ore Vein,
its environment had degraded from “Mine” to “Abandoned Mine.”
At suitable spots between every two adjacent circular Mine Tunnels, Su Yao created passageways, and then blocked off certain locations in the three tunnels with solid rock walls.
Thus, a simple maze formed from three “concentric” Mine Tunnels was born.
The Dungeon was located at the very top of the stone wall surrounding the hollow.
From the Dungeon’s position, the hollow below looked just like an enormous “Mine Pit.”
Adventurers wanting to see the three “Mine Pillars” within the pit would first have to find a way to reach the innermost circular tunnel of the “concentric maze.”
For Su Yao, who observed the maze from a three-dimensional perspective, finding the fastest and correct route to the inner tunnel was simple. But for adventurers, it was another matter.
They’d have to spend the better part of a day just to make one circuit around the outermost tunnel.
Adding in the occasional dead ends and forks, it would take them at least two to three days to find the way to the innermost tunnel.
Yet, that alone wasn’t enough. The innermost tunnel contained three Boss Rooms and three Rotating Rooms sealed with Magic Seals; adventurers would also have to find these within the tunnel.
After defeating the Boss inside each room, they would find a “Key” in the room’s precious treasure chest.
This “Key” served as a “Pass Permit,” allowing everyone within two meters to pass through the Rotating Room’s Magic Seal.
Once a room detected the presence of a “Pass Permit,” it would begin to rotate. With a bit of patience, the Magic Seal in the Rotating Room would soon face the gigantic Mine Pit with its three “Mine Pillars.”
After passing through the Magic Seal once more, adventurers would step onto a platform extending from the stone wall, from which they could see the long Iron Chain Bridge ahead and the “Mine Pillar” at its end.
By crossing this bridge suspended at the top of the Mine Pit, adventurers could easily reach the midsection of the “Mine Pillar.”
Incidentally, the magic stored in the “Key” only allowed passage through the Magic Seal twice.
The Teleport Point leading to the entrance hall would be set on the platform extending from the stone wall, just after passing through the Magic Seal.
On the “Mine Pillar” itself, Su Yao had designed several small Mines as mining spots.
Aside from the first small Mine connected directly by the Iron Chain Bridge, which was a pure reward, the rest required expert climbing skills to reach.
It was highly advised that adventurers not get too greedy here. After all, climbing up and down with a load of Magic Ore was no easy feat. And if you fell…
Even if you didn’t die on the spot, the “Salamanders” and “Water Salamanders” at the bottom of the pit wouldn’t show any mercy.
Su Yao designed it this way to remind the adventurers to know when to stop, instead of getting greedy and thinking of digging out every single piece of Magic Ore from the “Mine Pillar.”
Once the Rotating Room turned into position, the passage to the “Mine Pillar” would temporarily close, that spot becoming part of the ring-shaped stone wall once again.
Until the Boss refreshed, the Rotating Room wouldn’t return to its original state.
Through this setup, Su Yao could manually control the amount of Magic Ore the adventurers could extract.
This ensured that the third layer of the Dungeon remained attractive to them, while also making sure her own mine wouldn’t be stripped clean—how sweet!
Of course, treasure chests had to be set up as well.
Now that Sylvie Chamber of Commerce was absent, ordinary chests could appropriately yield some “White Granulated Sugar” and other “Luxury Silk” goods.
Aside from the three Rotating Rooms, Su Yao had also designed several “View Rooms” in the innermost tunnel.
As the name implied, these rooms not only contained chests, but their main purpose was to allow adventurers to view the three “Mine Pillars” studded with Magic Ore.
Those Magic Ores, glimmering with beautiful hues, shone even brighter under the glow of the magma…
(Magic Ore: “Standing on the street, not for sale, just here to tempt you!”)
Naturally, for Su Yao, harvesting these ores was still easy.
Viewed from directly above the Dungeon’s third layer, the Magic Ore Vein formed a “∧” shape, with the three “Mine Pillars” located at its two ends and the bend in the middle.
The “Large Underground Pond” submerged the central “Mine Pillar,” which sat right at that bend and was formed by folding a single vein into a “hill-shaped” one.
Within the central “Mine Pillar,” in fact, two ore veins overlapped, ensuring that the most in-demand “Water Source Stone” would be the most abundantly produced Magic Ore on the third layer.
The protruding sections of the vein were designed as “Mine Pillars,” while the bottom of the “hill” vein was buried underground, partly submerged by both magma and underground water.
Most of the time, Su Yao only needed to make a few circuits at the bottom of the Mine Pit, under the watchful gazes of the “Salamanders” and “Water Salamanders,” to collect the high-purity Magic Ore growing by the magma pools and the edges of the pond.
Magic Ores of slightly lower purity could be found nearly everywhere at the bottom of the pit, and she wouldn’t bother with them unless special circumstances arose.
On rare occasions, Su Yao could even dive to the bottom of the underground pond to look for high-purity “Water Source Stone.”
With her bond to a water spirit, she possessed both “Water Element Immunity” and “Water Affinity” as innate skills, and as the Dungeon Core, she didn’t need to breathe at all.
In a way, she was only one tail away from being a “Mermaid.”
If only she had “Fire Element Immunity” too, then perhaps she could try swimming in magma…
Back to the main point, Su Yao had considered connecting the three “Mine Pillars” with enough chain bridges to create an underground mine straight out of a fantasy movie.
But in the end, she gave up on that idea—at least for now. At this stage, she needed the Magic Ore more than the adventurers did.
She could build more bridges once the town’s construction was further along.
The starting maze, three Teleport Points, three Rotating Rooms, three Magic Seals, three time-limited Buff Boss Rooms, three extended Iron Chain Bridges, treasure chest rewards…
After spending two hundred thousand DP, Su Yao spent nearly another one hundred twenty thousand.
Not long after, the familiar tremors once again echoed from the surface, and her DP returned to its familiar, meager state—just a bit over twenty thousand.
She’d have to wait a few days to set up the monster spawn points in the Dungeon. For now, Su Yao needed to select three suitable monsters to summon into the Boss Rooms.
This time, the summoned Bosses had to be a bit tougher, since more and more adventurers were coming to her Dungeon. Just in her inn, there were already several over level thirty.
Not to mention Uzo, who was over level forty, and Arthur, who was over level fifty. If the Bosses were too weak, the cost to maintain the third layer would rise sharply.
“Spend 5500 DP to summon [Flame Demon]?”
“Spend 6000 DP to summon [Hydra]?”
“Spend 5000 DP to summon [Basilisk]?”
[Basilisk]: A monster with a rooster’s head and snake’s tail, said to have formed from Medusa’s blood. Its gaze doesn’t petrify, but can paralyze. If you have a mirror, you might be able to defeat it easily.
“Yes!”
With everything ready, the third layer of the Dungeon officially opened for business today, aiming for the stars and the Deep Abyss…