Damn it! I got screwed over!
This Monster Spawn Point can apparently only be placed on an iron ore vein.
I didn’t expect this world’s Monster Spawn Points to have such a weird mechanic… It’s just like that “Unliving” building in a certain real-time strategy game from my previous world, where a “Monster Gold Mine” could only be built on a “Gold Ore”.
What a rip-off Shop! Fourteen thousand DP of hers just went down the drain!
Forget it, this loss is still acceptable, and the issue with the “Moving Rock Wall” has already been solved. Su Yao still has two more problems to address next.
First up is the “Large Underground Glacier” she couldn’t place before due to DP constraints.
This also requires fifty thousand DP, and will produce the monsters “Condensed Ice Snow Pig” (limit 0/30) and “Condensed Ice Snow Boar King” (limit 0/1).
[Condensed Ice Snow Pig]: A branch of ancient wild boars that evolved over time, highly adaptable with delicious meat. When hibernating or facing danger, a layer of magic ice forms on their bodies, making them look frozen solid. When the ice shell melts, they go into a brief frenzy.
[Condensed Ice Snow Boar King]: The king among Ice Shell Snow Pigs. Unlike ordinary snow pigs, it burrows deep under the snow to hibernate and will only appear if sufficiently provoked.
These monsters look just like the “Long-Furred Pig” from a certain monster-catching game. Though she found it odd they’d live in an underground ice cavern, their physical traits left no doubt—they could survive even in extremely cold environments.
Of course, just placing the glacier wasn’t enough.
Su Yao then spent another hundred thousand DP to purchase a “Super-Large Mid-Tier Magic Barrier”, which covered everything from the mine pit’s rock walls up to the last exposed Mine Pillar.
According to the Shop’s description, this magic barrier couldn’t be broken by any attack weaker than a seventh-tier offensive spell.
However, its main job was to block heat, ensuring the glacier near the magma pool wouldn’t melt into water. It didn’t hinder the movement of living creatures, so under normal circumstances, it shouldn’t be at risk of being destroyed.
With the barrier in place, the temperature above the glacier was very low.
Not long after being spawned, the pigs had thick, crystalline layers of ice forming on their bodies, making them look like specimens sealed in transparent amber.
Apparently, that was their “hibernation” state. As for the Boar King, not long after it spawned, it burrowed straight under the snow.
This scene involuntarily reminded Su Yao of that one time, in a certain game, when she couldn’t help but kill all the pigs sealed in ice and then encountered the Boss…
Speaking of which, weren’t these pigs supposed to have “delicious meat”?
Maybe she should bring a few back to the Labyrinth Tavern when she returned. As long as the number was under ten, she shouldn’t be charged at by a Great Boar…
With this Monster Spawn Point set, it should only take three to five days before she could harvest plenty of high-purity “Ice Condensation Stones”.
With those, Su Yao would be able to build a “Cold Storage”. Not only that, but things like the magical world’s “Air Conditioner”, “Refrigerator”, and “Cold Chain Transport”…
Hmm, her life was about to take its second step towards modernization.
Next, Su Yao needed to solve her second problem—increasing the “Mana Density” of the Dungeon’s third layer.
To enable efficient mining, she had designed three “Mine Pillars”, but those three Mine Pillars also shrank the area of the “Original Ore Vein Full of Magic Power” that could affect the Dungeon.
The fact that the outermost Maze’s “Mine” environment had degraded into an “Abandoned Mine” was the best example of this.
Yet even so, the amount of mana needed to increase the “Mana Density” of the remaining area was staggering.
The output of Magic Ore in the Dungeon’s third layer was directly proportional to how much mana it contained. The higher the “Mana Density”, the faster the veins would produce “Magic Crystal”.
Granted, “Mana Density” wasn’t simply “the higher, the better”, but the current output of Magic Ore was still far short of what she envisioned.
Relying on the stray mana given off by Golems, Gremlins, and other monsters in the mine simply wasn’t enough to meet her current demand for Magic Ore.
All along, Su Yao had been channeling the mana produced in the Dungeon’s second layer’s “Magic State Circulation” down into the third layer.
This had improved Magic Ore output, but had also left her feeling fatigued and hungry—a rare occurrence for her.
It felt as though her body had been used for “mana restoration” by Lilith and Vainet several times in a row.
From the time the Dungeon’s Maze had been automatically repaired after being damaged by Latina, up until now, when the third layer was continuously drawing mana from her body, Su Yao finally understood the relationship between the “Dungeon Core” and this Dungeon.
There were actually two solutions: the first was to keep drinking “Magic Potion”.
Hunger could be sated by eating, but fatigue could only be eased by “Shenbao”!
But that would mean her combat ability would almost be locked down. After all, she couldn’t fight and chug potions at the same time, so this plan was out.
The second was to find a way to establish an independent “Magic State Circulation” for the Dungeon’s third layer.
But that wasn’t easy. People always said water was the source of life—nobody could survive just by eating dirt, right?
Just because humans couldn’t didn’t mean monsters couldn’t.
Su Yao had already noticed several kinds of monsters in the Shop that lived on earth and Magic Ore.
“Would you like to spend 6300 DP to summon [Gem Beast’s Underground Network]?”
“Yes!”
[Gem Beast]: Seemingly harmless, these monsters actually have a strong sense of territory. They love to eat gems and all kinds of Magic Ore, once considered pests of the mines. However, high-purity Magic Ore always forms near their droppings.
These creatures are cute, just like “Kyubey” from a certain magical girl anime. Of course, don’t be fooled by their appearance—if you ever see “Kyubey”, make sure you kill it on sight.
Whoops, that came out wrong. The Gem Beast may look cute, but if it opens its mouth…
Anyone with trypophobia really shouldn’t know what its mouth looks like. If you really want to satisfy your curiosity, Su Yao could only say—the teeth of a “Great White Shark” are cuter.
Of course, her main reason for buying Gem Beasts was their ability to convert low-purity Magic Ore into unneeded “waste” and mana.
Their nests looked like rabbit holes from the outside, but inside was a complex underground network, allowing them to escape predators easily.
Next up.
“Would you like to spend 7000 DP to summon [Rock-Eating Demon Goat’s Cave]?”
“Yes!”
[Rock-Eating Demon Goat]: Herd-dwelling goat-type monsters that live on rock walls. Their strong hind legs help them leap across cliffs, and they love eating ores, with rocks coming second.
They look almost identical to normal goats, except their horns change shape depending on their diet. If they eat Magic Ore, their horns start to look like Obsidian.
They too convert Magic Ore into mana, but their habits make them prefer the Magic Ore growing on the “Mine Pillars”.
Thus, their Monster Spawn Points were set on the pillars themselves.
Incidentally, Rock-Eating Demon Goats have to return to the surface to mate, which is their most dangerous time, since both Salamanders and Water Salamanders are carnivorous monsters.
Back to business: Su Yao set up five Gem Beast Monster Spawn Points in the Maze and mine, and put one Rock-Eating Demon Goat Monster Spawn Point on each of the three Mine Pillars.
Finally, she set up a few “Rock Python Nests” to control the number of Gem Beasts in the mine.
With this, including the Adventurers who come to mine, a unique “Ecosystem” belonging to the Dungeon’s third layer was complete.
Oh, almost forgot—the numbers of Salamanders and Water Salamanders also needed to be controlled.
Su Yao browsed the Shop, and after reading the description of a certain monster, her eyes lit up.
But after all this, she’d already burned through 320,000 DP, with almost nothing left. No choice but to recharge a bit more… just a bit…
A while later, “Would you like to spend 35,000 DP to summon [Crystal-Tailed Dragon Lizard]?”
“Yes!”