Furnace Knight Is Here!

The types of Usable Monsters in a dungeon were determined by the City Lord's knowledge.

But Gong Qiying had never expected monsters from fantasy works on Earth to be recreated as well.

A quick scan revealed nothing but familiar titles—Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Elden Ring, Monster Hunter, The Elder Scrolls, and Final Fantasy. There were even the stylistically bizarre Plants vs. Zombies and Pokémon!

And not just games—anime such as Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan, Akame ga Kill!, Jujutsu Kaisen, and One-Punch Man were there too!

"This is an exclusive cheat that only I, a transmigrator, can have."

Once his initial excitement faded, he examined things more closely and discovered that only a few monsters from each fantasy work had been unlocked. Vast numbers of others were grayed out as locked, with even their unlock requirements listed.

[Hero Guda Unlock Requirement: Level 3 Lord Authority]

[Heavenly Roaring Dragon Unlock Requirement: Level 5 Lord Authority]

[Arceus Unlock Requirement: ???]

Gong Qiying checked and found that advancing to Level 3 Lord Authority required a staggering fifty thousand Mental Power. Level 4 required five hundred thousand, while Level 5 was simply a string of question marks.

The road ahead was long and arduous.

After looking into it further, he discovered with some frustration that many monsters overlapped in role and were completely unnecessary.

For example, the native Goblins of this world and the Bokoblins from The Legend of Zelda had nearly identical roles. Both were low-intelligence cannon fodder, and their specific stats looked like this:

[Goblin]

[Mental Power Required per Unit: 1]

[Health: F, Strength: E, Intelligence: F, Endurance: E+, Speed: F, Combat Power: F]

[The average stats of a normal adult human are E]

[Bokoblin]

[Mental Power Required per Unit: 3]

[Health: F, Strength: E+, Intelligence: G, Endurance: F, Speed: F, Combat Power: F]

When their Combat Power was the same and only their minor attributes differed, monsters from fantasy works often required more than twice as much Mental Power as native monsters!

"Not cost-effective enough."

After realizing that monsters from fantasy works were more expensive, Gong Qiying's excitement weakened considerably.

"I'm still in the primitive accumulation stage. Every point of Mental Power has to be carefully budgeted. Except under special circumstances, the dungeon's monsters should still mainly be local creatures."

The [Available Buildings] had also received an update. As expected, structures from fantasy works had appeared as well, and Gong Qiying immediately spotted his favorites: Fort Faroth and Blighttown.

Then he checked the construction costs and suddenly liked them much less.

In addition, he could use items from fantasy works as rewards in Sain Underground City, though the Mental Power required was still enough to make him lose it.

Perhaps once he had plenty of Mental Power in the future, adventurers would be able to find a cancellable Straight Sword, a red-and-white Poké Ball, or Johnny Silverhand's arm in Sain Underground City.

"Enough letting my thoughts run wild."

Gong Qiying turned his attention back to the Crystal Ball. A set of Notes lay before him, recording areas that needed improvement in real time.

Time passed second by second, until moonlight descended upon the earth. There were two hours left before the dungeon closed.

Two hours later, the dungeon entrance would close. Only exit was permitted; entry was forbidden. Adventurers stranded inside would be forcibly teleported out half an hour later.

From midnight until three in the morning was the rest period heaven had left for the dungeon.

"Nearly three hundred people died."

The number surprised him somewhat, but on second thought, it was simply the effect of being caught off guard on their first encounter.

In a few days, once news spread that Sain Underground City had undergone an abnormal change and become far more difficult, its visitor flow would likely take a hit—just like how online games always had their highest revenue right after launch.

What Gong Qiying needed to consider was how to keep adventurers coming back.

Blindly piling on difficulty would greatly increase Mental Power in the short term, but what he wanted was sustainable development—a steady, lasting stream.

"I should consider adding more rewards."

Gong Qiying pondered for a while, then sighed again.

"But I don't have enough Mental Power. Repairing damaged buildings and traps, replenishing dead monsters—those alone are already considerable expenses. Then there are loopholes to patch and map routes to modify. If I add more rewards too..."

"No. In the short term, I still need to focus on gathering Mental Power."

It was a helpless reality. Even though he had identified the problem, he could not change it anytime soon.

"If only tens of thousands of people could come here and kill themselves."

When he looked at the Crystal Ball again, his eyebrows suddenly rose, as though he had seen something astonishing.

"No way. Someone's actually about to clear it?"

The Crystal Ball showed a Maiden with pointed ears drawing a longbow and shooting a Minotaur's head apart with one arrow, officially entering the Underground Mine of the Lower Level!

She was the first adventurer to reach the Lower Level unscathed—at least, she looked unscathed. Other than her, every person who had reached the Lower Level had triggered a Teleportation Trap.

"She's very strong, but..." Gong Qiying stared at the dungeon's miniature model. "I can't let you clear it."

The reason was that he himself was the final BOSS!

As the dungeon's City Lord, Gong Qiying—Godwyn—bore the responsibility of acting as the final BOSS and accepting challengers!

Once he died, reviving would consume a massive amount of Mental Power, at least a thousand points. If he did not have enough Mental Power, he would die completely and hand over the position of City Lord!

Then why was the weakling Godwyn still the City Lord? Someone should have killed him long ago.

Because he had hidden the City Lord's room extremely well!

One had to pass through eighteen Teleportation Traps in succession to reach this place, along with several unrelated puzzles. In truth, no one had ever found him. He had created a fake final BOSS to accept challenges instead.

According to his memories, every dungeon lord did this.

But in order to save costs, Gong Qiying had reduced the Teleportation Traps until only two remained. The fake BOSS merely had a symbolic pile of Skeleton Monsters and Blood Mosquitoes, so the chances of it being discovered had increased greatly.

He had practically remade the dungeon overnight. The workload was so immense that no human should have been able to manage it.

Oversights were unavoidable.

"I didn't expect there to be an expert among the masses. I failed to think this through."

He rubbed the bridge of his nose and began selecting from the Usable Monsters.

He had to eliminate the elven Maiden before she reached his door, but the Mental Power spent could not exceed the amount needed to revive after being killed himself. Otherwise, it would be a loss.

When he saw a certain figure among the Usable Monsters, he suddenly grinned.

"You're the one. Go, Teacher Furnace!"

[Furnace Knight (Axe Helm)]

[Mental Power Required per Unit: 800]

[Health: C, Strength: C+, Intelligence: C, Endurance: C, Speed: C, Combat Power: C]