New Mechanism, New Gameplay

What's going on?

Si Telan was startled and confused, noticing another line of small text appear before her eyes:

[Current Soul Count: 5677, can be used for leveling up]

Leveling up?!

As this thought crossed her mind, a panel suddenly opened in front of her, giving her a fright.

[Si Telan]

[Life: 3]

[Strength: 3]

[Intelligence: 1]

[Endurance: 1]

[Agility: 1]

[Sensing: 1]

[Souls required for leveling up: 644]

"What, what is this thing?" She looked helplessly at Gong Qiying; this was beyond her comprehension.

"This is the surprise I was talking about,"

Gong Qiying said while clapping, "Congratulations, defeating the Giant Curse Frog means you've cleared the upper area. Next, you can explore the layer below, and there are more adventures waiting for you."

"Thank you... No, no, I'm asking about this thing!"

"Ah, that's a reward for those who clear the upper layer," Gong Qiying said. "I don't know much about it, but I can give you a simple explanation."

"You'll encounter Bonfires when you clear each layer. Resting at a Bonfire can quickly replenish lost stamina and also allows you to level up using Souls. No matter how strong someone is, everyone starts at level one by default."

"You ask where the Souls come from? They drop when you kill monsters,"

Gong Qiying continued, "This is a unique mechanism of the Zane Dungeon. After killing monsters, you can obtain varying amounts of Souls. After obtaining Souls, you can level up at a Bonfire. That's right, leveling up means getting stronger, and the 강화 effect won't disappear even after leaving the Zane Dungeon."

Si Telan's breathing became heavy. She realized something and said, "So, as long as I keep killing monsters, I can get stronger?"

"That's the idea,"

She quickly went over to examine the panel. For some reason, Life and Strength were 3 while everything else was 1. Was it because she had used the Giant Curse Frog's Soul?

"What Life and Strength represent is easy to understand. Intelligence is different from the IQ you're thinking of; it relates to the damage when using magic. The higher the Intelligence, the stronger the magic's power. Endurance is linked to stamina. The more you upgrade Endurance, the longer you can hold a greatshield."

"You don't need me to tell you what Agility represents. You can think of Sensing as luck. The higher the Sensing, the more likely you are to obtain items from monsters when you kill them."

Si Telan was stunned for a moment, muttering to herself, "This is truly... an unheard-of mechanism."

In that instant, she realized the immense potential of the Bonfire mechanism. If one could keep leveling up, wouldn't everyone in the world flock here?

"Let's try leveling up Endurance,"

Endurance became 2. She shook her hand, not feeling any obvious change.

[Souls required for upgrade: 807]

With her Endurance raised to 4, Si Telan finally felt a change in her body. It was a very subtle feeling, but in short, she had become stronger.

She then upgraded her Strength, Attunement, and Dexterity by one point each, aiming for balanced development.

[Souls required for upgrade: 1899]

[Current Soul count: 78]

No money left.

Si Telan, still wanting more, reluctantly closed the panel. The feeling of becoming stronger just by moving her fingers was truly captivating.

And it was incredibly overpowered.

If she relied purely on training, the time required to become stronger would be measured in years. But in Zane Dungeon, all she needed to do was kill monsters!

She couldn't even imagine how fanatical those who had hit a cultivation bottleneck would be upon learning that they could upgrade quickly and easily here!

"Oh right," it wasn't until after upgrading that Si Telan remembered to ask Gong Qiying for his thoughts. "Do you have any upgrade suggestions?"

Gong Qiying thought for a moment and said, "Raise your Vigor to forty first."

"Ah, is there a reason for that?"

"No, it just increases your survival rate."

"Alright..."

Just as Si Telan was about to say something, her eyes suddenly widened. She pointed at Gong Qiying and stammered, "You, you, you,"

"Me, me, me?" Gong Qiying tilted his head.

"Your body is disappearing!"

Gong Qiying, who was originally a golden spirit body, was gradually becoming transparent. It looked like he would disappear completely in a few more seconds!

"It's a normal phenomenon. Assistants like me return after helping you defeat the area's final boss monster. There's no need to worry, I'm not dead."

Understanding this, Si Telan was no longer panicked. She took a deep breath and said loudly, "Thank you for your help!"

Gong Qiying waved his hand, and his figure completely vanished from her sight.

"He really disappeared..."

Looking at the empty room, she felt a bit lonely for a moment.

But this loneliness was quickly diluted by the novelty of discovering the Bonfire. She circled the Bonfire, examining it.

"Should I continue killing monsters on this floor to collect Souls, or should I enter the next floor?"

Si Telan thought carefully and decided that the meaning of life lay in moving forward and exploring. So, she decisively entered the mid-level area.

Not long after, Gong Qiying saw that the mental energy collected by the dungeon had increased by over two hundred. It seemed Si Telan had died in the mid-level.

He looked at the increasing mental energy, lost in thought.

"As expected, upgraded adventurers can yield more mental energy, even double."

The mechanisms of Bonfires and Souls were things he discovered by chance.

Initially, he had simply been browsing through available buildings when he found a Bonfire from the world of Dark Souls. After placing it, the entire Zane Dungeon underwent mysterious changes.

Simply put, this change meant that killing monsters could yield Souls, and with enough Souls, one could level up at a Bonfire.

What started as an unintentional act blossomed into something significant. The mere placement of a Bonfire led to such earth-shattering changes, which was truly a pleasant surprise.

Gong Qiying was confident that this mechanism would attract even more people to enter the Zane Dungeon!

Because becoming stronger was the ultimate temptation for everyone!

Adventurers would grow stronger in the dungeon, and when they died, they would drop even more mental energy. It was simply a win-win situation.

Before, he had been troubled, feeling that the Zane Dungeon lacked a trump card, an ultimate temptation to attract adventurers. Now, looking at it, the Bonfire mechanism perfectly solved his problem.

"Speaking of which, I hope no adventurers want to become a Sword God of Ten Mile Slope,"

To prevent adventurers from only farming Souls in the upper areas, the monsters he arranged were all worthless fodder. They were weak and dropped a small number of Souls. Adventurers might be able to farm them in the early stages, but once they leveled up a few times, the number of Souls required would greatly increase.

Therefore, to level up faster, adventurers had to enter the lower areas to explore and challenge stronger monsters!

Then die, turning their mental energy into nourishment for him, Gong Qiying, and this dungeon!

And to prevent strong individuals from grinding levels, once an adventurer's strength reached a certain level, the mental energy required for their upgrades would be so vast that even if they killed all the monsters in the dungeon, farming daily and monthly, they wouldn't level up much. The returns would be less than training on their own.

Controlling the numbers was very important.

"I hope Si Telan can spread the word,"