Traps and Adaptive Evolution

Boiling lava, scorching heat—this was a dead zone for life.

As soon as the Seventh Layer had been successfully opened, Luo Ao immediately moved all the treasures from the treasury to its deepest reaches. Before him stretched a sea of boiling Lava Sea.

The air twisted continuously beneath the terrifying heat. Occasional reefs jutted from the boundless Lava Sea, baked until they glowed hot.

"This environment, this terrain—it suits me perfectly!"

The moment Luo Ao saw the Seventh Layer's environment, his first thought was satisfaction—utter satisfaction. The endless Lava Sea was like the legendary Endless Abyss, perfectly meeting his needs.

In this environment, even Formal Professionals would face lethal threats at every turn from the several-hundred-degree heat in the air and the lava everywhere.

As for ordinary people, they would be guaranteed to turn into cooked meat within minutes on the Seventh Layer.

Afterward, Luo Ao's spiritual power swept across the entire Seventh Layer. Its terrain was simple: the first half consisted of lava caverns formed by countless caves, lava rivers, and lakes, while the latter half was a vast Lava Sea.

"This terrain seems like it could use a few more changes."

After inspecting the Seventh Layer's terrain, Luo Ao decided to make a few minor adjustments.

In the first half of the Seventh Layer, countless interconnected caves formed an enormous maze. At that moment, the lava rivers and lakes scattered throughout began to boil, hollowing out cavities beneath the ground at certain corners and inconspicuous spots.

Massive amounts of lava poured into them as the upper ground gradually thinned. Rock turned into stone slabs, and Luo Ao even added a catch mechanism: the moment someone stepped on one, the slab would flip over and send them straight into the magma pool below.

So that adventurers entering the Seventh Layer could have a good time, Luo Ao deliberately selected all sorts of devious tricks. Often, solid ground would lie ahead one moment, only to turn into a trap the next. And to prevent adventurers who fell in from escaping,

Luo Ao thoughtfully designed a small mechanism. Once an adventurer fell, the flipped stone slab would temporarily lock in place.

"Love around the corner. I hope all the adventurers enjoy it."

As Luo Ao spoke, his spiritual power began sensing the cooler, relatively safer areas within the caves of the first half. In the end, he found several dozen caves made entirely of rock, their interior temperatures much lower than outside.

"They look like perfect places to set up temporary camps and rest. Let me lend a hand."

Passages connecting to the bottom of the Lava Sea were opened one after another. Under immense pressure, liquid magma surged wildly into the passages, eventually flowing into deliberately reserved cavities above and around the major caves. Luo Ao left hundreds of Spray ports around those cavities.

Every Spray port was fitted with a plug and a shutter. The mechanisms that opened those shutters were hidden in inconspicuous spots on the cave walls and floors. As long as adventurers camped and rested here, they might accidentally touch an activation mechanism.

Then the lava filling the walls and ceilings throughout the caves would Spray out under high pressure, giving the resting adventurers a lava bath and thoroughly washing away the exhaustion of the day.

"Seems like I could add a little more."

After thinking it over, Luo Ao set up the same traps at the corners and dead ends of the major caves. To lure adventurers in, he placed quite a few treasure chests, some of which were connected directly to the trap triggers.

The moment someone opened a chest, the traps would activate instantly, letting the adventurer die happily amid the excitement and thrill of uncovering treasure.

"I'm really too kind. I even considered how adventurers would feel before they died."

After perfecting the first half of the Seventh Layer, Luo Ao turned his gaze toward the Lava Sea in the latter half. Sparse black reefs dotted the endless crimson surface, their hardness under the searing heat fully comparable to steel.

They also contained vast amounts of violent fire elements. So long as another element interfered, the volatile fire elements within would react and explode instantly.

In the end, Luo Ao decided to name it Flameburst Rock.

"This material is pretty good."

With that thought, Luo Ao willed it into motion. Large amounts of Flameburst Rock rose from beneath the sea, forming islands of varying sizes across the lava sea. These islands appeared to offer adventurers a convenient way through.

They could cross the lava sea more easily, but once they fought on the islands, any stray elements that stirred the fire elements within the Flameburst Rock into turmoil would instantly turn the entire island into a giant bomb.

As for its exact power, they would have to wait for future adventurers to experience it firsthand.

"The fantasy and terrain modifications are more or less complete. Next, it's time to create the Seventh Layer's monsters."

Terrain and traps alone could at most ensnare the first batch of adventurers. Once they had fully explored the Seventh Layer and learned its details, with the average adventurer entering the Seventh Layer already being a transcendent, they would have all kinds of ways to avoid the traps.

That was why monsters were needed to make up for this flaw.

"Why are these little guys here?"

Just as Luo Ao was about to see what materials on the Seventh Layer were suitable for creating monsters, his gaze suddenly turned toward the Seventh Layer's entrance. Groups of Puchis were running out from inside.

Yet even Puchis that had adapted to the desert environment beside the Sixth Layer were still no match for the lava hell of the Seventh Layer. The dozen or so Puchis at the front burst into flames the instant they stepped onto the Seventh Layer under the terrifying heat.

In less than a minute, they turned into piles of charcoal. Yet the Puchis behind them acted as though they had seen nothing, and soon a thick layer of black ash covered the ground.

But during this process, the later the Puchis entered the Seventh Layer, the longer they survived. The colorful mushroom caps atop their heads began turning crimson, while fiery patterns spread across their bodies.

When the first Puchi to fully adapt to the Seventh Layer's high-temperature environment appeared, crimson spores began spraying out continuously. Dark-red mycelium on the ground grew wildly, constantly absorbing the violent fire elements and heat around it as nourishment for its growth.

Mushrooms visibly sprouted from the mycelium. Once they grew to half a person's height, they pulled themselves from the ground, ran toward the nearest lava on their tiny legs, and began another round of Adaptive Evolution.

"What terrifying adaptability and evolutionary ability."

Watching the Fungus Lord complete the entire process of adapting and evolving to the Seventh Layer's environment in such a short time, Luo Ao was still astonished despite having witnessed similar scenes several times before.

It truly deserved to be a monster created from the only special resource that came with the dungeon's birth. Its talent and potential were beyond question.

"It's time to see what resources this layer has."

Retracting his gaze, Luo Ao's spiritual power swept across the entire Seventh Layer in search of materials. As a brand-new layer, it was more than half again as large as the Sixth Layer, its enormous area already comparable to a super-sized city.