Leave some meat!
Inside the cave, Sean and John, both Professionals, forcibly broke through the encirclement and escaped with their formidable strength. Just as the many monsters instinctively began devouring the corpses left behind by the adventurers, Lucifer hurriedly suppressed their instincts.
The hard stone floor seemed to come alive, swallowing every corpse on the ground. It did not even spare the adventurers' souls.
[Devoured Flesh ×13, Primordial Power +13, Souls +13]
"Devouring dead adventurers can actually increase Primordial Power."
In the deepest part of the Third Layer, Lucifer looked at the increased Primordial Power on the panel and immediately realized that adventurers would become one of the resources for his growth. He then looked at the thirteen adventurer souls floating before him.
He instinctively knew their uses. They could be devoured like flesh to increase Primordial Power and accelerate the Dungeon's growth. They could also be used as materials to create monsters, producing even stronger ones.
"Right now, the most important thing is to raise the Dungeon's level as quickly as possible, become stronger, and gain more layers."
Limited by the Dungeon's current level, even if Lucifer possessed powerful materials, he could not create particularly strong monsters. Only by raising the Dungeon's level and creating more layers could he become safer.
"Devour."
[Devoured Souls ×13, Primordial Power +26]
Compared to flesh, devouring souls provided twice as much Primordial Power. Lucifer's mental power instinctively locked onto the two adventurers with professions who were escaping the Dungeon.
How much Primordial Power would the flesh and souls of Formal Professionals provide?
After thinking it over, Lucifer ultimately chose not to send the monsters to kill the two. Though a large number of monsters could successfully overwhelm two Professionals, the price paid would certainly not be small.
Besides, these adventurers were nourishment for Lucifer's growth. If they all died inside the Dungeon, ordinary adventurers would no longer dare enter it, and only a handful of powerful elite experts would come in.
Not only would that greatly reduce the resources Lucifer obtained, it might even lead to him being successfully conquered by a powerful elite adventurer team because he lacked sufficient nourishment to grow.
Therefore, Lucifer needed to change his strategy.
He needed to prepare treasures and equipment to attract more adventurers, ensuring that even ordinary adventurers could gain something and creating survivor bias.
As long as adventurers gained enough rewards, even if they were not Formal Professionals, those adventurers hungry for wealth and power would stream endlessly into the Dungeon, believing that they too could become one of the lucky ones.
"Sustainable development and a war of attrition."
Lucifer had gained a completely new understanding of how to run a Dungeon.
The next second, all the belongings left behind by the dead adventurers were delivered before Lucifer.
A magic staff, scattered pieces of leather armor, chainmail, various refined steel weapons, a pile of unknown potions and commonly used adventuring tools, and finally, some coins.
Several hundred copper coins, more than a dozen silver coins, and one glittering gold coin.
"These are all magical metals."
Lucifer looked at the many coins before him. According to the information in the souls he had devoured, the currency of this world consisted of copper coins, silver coins, and gold coins, all forged from magical metals. Their inherent value served as the anchor of the currency itself.
Thirty copper coins could buy enough black bread to feed a family for a day, while one gold coin was worth ten thousand copper coins.
"This gold coin should belong to that mage. Speaking of which, do these count as treasures?"
Lucifer looked at the section on the panel showing Primordial Power recovery. His daily Primordial Power recovery was +30.134. Why were there three digits after the decimal point?
After calming himself and carefully sensing it, Lucifer figured out that the three digits after the decimal represented the boost from the pile of coins before him and the magic staff. The staff provided a 0.1 boost, while the pile of coins provided a 0.034 boost.
As for the scattered chainmail, weapons, and other items without magical effects, they did not increase the absorption rate of Primordial Power.
"No wonder legendary dragons loved treasure and all kinds of magical equipment. I'd love them too!"
Lucifer looked at the items before him with delight. The more treasures that could help him grow, the better.
He piled the coins and magic staff in the simple treasury of the Third Layer. Then, looking at the remaining equipment that could not increase his growth rate, he created stone treasure chests in hidden corners throughout the three-layer Dungeon with a thought.
He then spent a sliver of Primordial Power to repair all the equipment before stuffing it into the treasure chests.
While Lucifer was creating the treasure chests, more and more adventurers flooded into the Dungeon. Most of these so-called adventurers were actually just slightly stronger commoners carrying weapons.
These lowest-level adventurers formed small teams and cautiously explored the Dungeon. Like rats, they stuffed everything they could carry into their backpacks.
In just a few hours, every type of mushroom in the area near the entrance of the Dungeon's first layer had been picked clean.
During that time, a few careless novice adventurers wandered into the dense spore fog, were infected by Neurotoxin, and collapsed to the ground. Large amounts of mycelium then grew from their bodies, and they died completely within the Dungeon, becoming nourishment for Lucifer's growth.
"I like novice adventurers the most."
Lucifer watched the Primordial Power on the panel continuously increase and practically adored these novice adventurers. It was just a pity that they were all ordinary. Even after devouring both their souls and flesh, they could only provide 0.5 Primordial Power.
They were completely inferior to those who had died during the first deep exploration, people who were only one step away from becoming Professionals.
But novice adventurers were plentiful, and none of them were particularly strong. Even Goblins could kill them if there were enough of them.
"They found the entrance to the second layer so quickly!"
Suddenly, Lucifer sensed adventurers entering the Second Layer. He projected his mental power over and saw Mark at the entrance to the second layer, holding two Battle Axes and directing his subordinates to clear out the nearby monsters. His silver armor was covered in bloodstains.
Mark then took out a notebook and began sketching in it, creating a simple map.
"As expected of a professional military force. Compared to those adventurers who only cooperate temporarily, they're worlds apart."
Lucifer watched the knights explore the Dungeon in an orderly fashion. In terms of individual strength, these knights were not far behind the elite adventurers from before, but their coordination was on an entirely different level.
This knight squad moved as one whole.
Although Lucifer had already transformed all three layers of the Dungeon into a maze, creating countless false passages to confuse adventurers, the First Layer itself was not large. At most, it could cause them some trouble; it could not stop this elite knight squad at all.
[Level: lv3 (240/400)]
"Soon. By tomorrow at the latest, I'll level up and create new layers and monsters."
Before you continue