But how should the sacrifices be made?
Dalun Li had to consider the costs. It was impossible to leave a spatial connection for sacrifices on every single card; the cost would simply be too high.
“I should build some sacrifice altars.”
Dalun Li eventually decided to design sacrifice altars for each floor of the dungeon.
Through these sacrifice altars, items containing death power could be sacrificed directly to the Well of Eternal Imprisonment in exchange for upgrades to the snake bone cards.
If he was going to establish sacrifice altars, Dalun Li planned to expand on their functions even further.
He would allow adventurers to sacrifice materials for card evolution directly through the altars, allowing their monster cards to evolve.
This way, adventurers would no longer need to seek out the monster merchant. Once they had accumulated enough materials, they could simply use a sacrifice altar.
After the sacrifice altars were built, he could add other uses, turning them into various stations for future updates to the Well of Eternal Imprisonment.
With a creative spark, Dalun Li quickly began conceptualizing the materials needed for the construction of these sacrifice altars in his mind.
But before that...
Dalun Li gazed at the giant snake card in his hand.
The giant snake skeleton summoned by adventurers through the card was not the actual skeleton itself.
It was a spatial projection of the giant snake skeleton. Therefore, a single segment of bone could be contracted to several adventurers simultaneously, creating multiple snake bone cards.
However, given the current number of adventurers in the Well of Eternal Imprisonment, it still wasn't quite enough.
He would need to transform and revive at least ten segments of the giant snake skeleton to barely manage creating fifty snake bone cards.
“I'll make do with this for now. In the end, I'll have to count on that old fogey, Withered Reincarnation, to put in the work.”
Dalun Li felt the learning speed of his hidden peerless wisdom and believed it wouldn't be long before he acquired enough death knowledge and power.
Now, what should he name this snake bone?
This special type of card capable of summoning snake bones clearly couldn't be lumped together with ordinary monster cards.
Dalun Li planned to categorize this type as special cards.
“The Midgard Serpent, Bone of Jormungandr?”
“Using mythology directly feels a bit too conspicuous.”
Dalun Li worried that there might actually be a Jormungandr in this world.
Being a bit cautious was, after all, the safer path.
“The Snake of Eternal Imprisonment, Bone of the Sinful Snake.”
Dalun Li named the card, then bound five cards to a single snake bone and scattered them throughout the dungeon's ruins and treasure chests.
...
By now, adventurers had already set foot on the eleventh floor and were struggling through the lava.
The Lava Stratum presented a significant obstacle to these adventurers, but with the delivery of various magic items and supplies, they were beginning to adapt bit by bit.
The supply chain ran from the first floor to the fourth, then from the fourth to the sixth, and finally from the sixth to the front lines.
This long supply chain allowed Dalun Li to take quite a few commissions, so he didn't mind it at all.
However, the adventurers rushing to the Well of Eternal Imprisonment were indeed becoming stronger, with no shortage of high rank adventurers among them.
This was exactly what Dalun Li hoped for.
As the Well of Eternal Imprisonment received more attention, Dalun Li was able to absorb more resources throughout the process.
The amount of information he could obtain was also increasing.
The most important piece of information was that the Grey family and the Prince's forces had simultaneously announced their intention to conquer Gray Mist Valley within a month.
Additionally, the lord of the North Sea Territory—the very territory where the Well of Eternal Imprisonment was located—Fenris Grey, had moved from the old castle to the newly built castle in Eternal Imprisonment Town.
This signaled that Eternal Imprisonment Town had replaced the previous towns of the North Sea Territory to become its new center.
At the same time, it was a further declaration of sovereignty by the Grey family over the Well of Eternal Imprisonment, showing that its importance in their eyes had increased significantly.
Furthermore, at the site of the church—the square beneath the castle in Eternal Imprisonment Town—a statue of the goddess was beginning to be erected.
The square in front of the church had been established when the Well of Eternal Imprisonment first appeared.
Now, following the development and construction of Eternal Imprisonment Town, the square had been paved with stone slabs, planted with flower beds, and fitted with fountains.
Usually, adventurers and various vendors would gather in this square to conduct trades.
The Church of the Goddess of Light, the Adventurer Association, and several inns and taverns were all built around the square.
In addition to the changes within Eternal Imprisonment Town, to the north of the town...
As the season grew warmer, the ice in the North Sea began to melt, and it wouldn't be long before ships could pass through the North Sea Strait.
The North Sea had a melting period of only two to three months a year, and ships could only pass during this time.
When that happened, there might even be foreigners landing from the North Sea and coming to this North Sea Territory.
All the intelligence pointed toward one thing.
Something big was coming.
Dalun Li was about to be swamped.
To prevent being overwhelmed, Dalun Li also activated an emergency plan: eat as much as possible and grow with all his might.
And then, work as hard as possible to squeeze Withered Reincarnation dry!
...
The eleventh floor of the Well of Eternal Imprisonment.
A six person adventurer team was currently struggling through their exploration. Their captain was a third-rank swordsman named Thorin.
This adventurer team, named Ash Flower, was not the original six person team that had first landed.
Instead, it was an exploration team composed of four members of Ash Flower plus two temporarily recruited adventurers.
At this moment, Ash Flower had laboriously reached a relatively cool cavern, resisting the hot lava winds blowing from ahead.
The first-rank mage, Brock, quickly cast water magic.
However, as a first-rank mage, although he was proficient in water magic, he was severely suppressed in the Lava Stratum.
The water magic he cast now could only barely summon a small sphere of flowing water.
This suppressed level of magic caused Thorin and the rest of the team to frown.
Exploration of the Lava Stratum was becoming increasingly difficult, and Brock had become a burden.
Thorin looked at the other mage in the team, a second-rank mage named Dagna who had been temporarily recruited from the sixth floor.
“Leave the party, Brock.”
Thorin's voice was like a heavy hammer striking the depths of Brock's heart.
However, Brock also understood that he had become a liability.
No one had expected that the Lava Stratum, the eleventh floor, would follow immediately after the Desert Stratum.
Although Brock was a member of Ash Flower, the team had already recruited the second-rank mage, Dagna.
Perhaps once they returned to the surface, Dagna would be inducted as a formal member of Ash Flower.
“I understand, Captain.”
Thorin nodded and said no more.
As the captain of Ash Flower, he had a specific value assigned to every team member in his mind.
If a member's value dragged down the rest of the team and reduced the profits he could obtain...
Then they would be discarded.
Ash Flower had no need for burdens.
...
After parting ways with the team, Brock walked toward the upper floors.
Brock felt no resentment toward the captain; after all, he had indeed held the team back.
Who could have imagined that the Lava Stratum would follow right after the Desert Stratum?
The scorching heat radiating from the magma distorted his vision.
Brock skirted the lava canyon before him, laboriously advancing according to his map.
Scorching lava flowed within the canyon; a single careless step into it would lead only to death.
Brock cast water magic, creating a thin film of water over his body to barely resist the high temperatures.
Brock was born with a vast amount of mana, far exceeding that of other mages. It was for this reason that he had been chosen by Ash Flower in the first place.
But the price of this massive mana capacity was that advancing in rank was exceptionally difficult for him.
As he climbed along the upward canyon, a black dot appeared in his heat distorted vision.
Brock quickly drew his staff.
Although his specialty, water magic, was suppressed on this floor, he was not entirely unskilled in other elemental magics.
Relying on his massive mana reserves, he was more than capable of dealing with ordinary monsters.
The black dot gradually became clear, and Brock noticed that it was not a monster, but a human figure.
“Dagna?”
Brock spoke in confusion, but Dagna had already struck first.
A second-rank wind spell, already charged, instantly slashed toward Brock.
Brock hurriedly crossed his staff, barely opening a mana barrier, but it was shredded in an instant.
His mana leather armor, designed to resist damage, was torn apart, and a large gash was slashed across his chest, blood gushing out.
The wind currents whipped up by the magic lifted his body and threw him toward the canyon.
Enduring the pain, Brock waved his staff and barely manipulated the flowing wind to blow himself back to the edge of the cliff wall.
Dagna approached step by step, and with a wave of her staff, the wind blew Brock's money pouch into her hand.
“Why?”
Brock realized his end was near and spoke with difficulty.
“It is all by the command of my master, Thorin.”
Master? Captain Thorin?
A memory surfaced in Brock's mind. When he first joined Ash Flower, the team originally had five members.
One of them was a veteran adventurer who had left the team shortly after Brock joined.
According to the captain, that veteran adventurer had accumulated a lifetime of wealth and bought a small territory south of the Northern Territory to live the life of a knight.
Since then, Brock had never seen him again.
Nor had he ever received a letter from that veteran adventurer.
“The captain will kill you sooner or later too!”
Brock shouted.
“He won't, because I am ready to die for my master at any time.”
Dagna spoke with a calm expression. That feeling reminded Brock of the legendary mental control.
“Where is the wealth you accumulated on the surface?”
Dagna leaned down and lifted Brock's head. Her purple eyes stared intently into his as she asked.
There was no way Brock would tell her, yet under the gaze of those eyes so close to his, his mind involuntarily began to recall the information.
Brock seemed to realize something and quickly squeezed his eyes shut, but his eyelids were forced open by her fingers.
“I know now.”
“You are of no more use. Your treasures will become the resources for my master's ascent.”
“Master will eventually control the Forbidden Fire, the Well of Eternal Imprisonment, and then the entire Northern Territory.”
“So, die.”
Dagna waved her staff, and a wind blade slashed down, aimed at severing Brock's head.
Brock endured the agonizing pain in his chest and forced all of his mana to explode.
Blood sprayed from the wound on his chest as his body flew backward, falling off the canyon and plunging toward the magma.
Dagna walked to the edge of the canyon and watched as Brock, having fallen, was swallowed by the lava, leaving not even a bone behind.
After confirming there was no possibility of Brock's survival, she turned and left.
Rate on N.U.
