The Crucible Knight Is Here!

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

But Gong Qiying had never expected that even monsters from fantasy works on Earth could be recreated.

A quick glance showed 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"!

It was not limited to games, either. 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 a transmigrator like me can possess." After the initial excitement faded and he examined things more carefully, he discovered that only a few monsters from each fantasy work had been unlocked. Most remained grayed out, marked as locked, with even their unlock requirements listed.

Hero Gundyr Unlock Requirement: Level 3 City Lord Authority

Ruiner Nergigante Unlock Requirement: Level 5 City Lord Authority

Arceus Unlock Requirement: ???

Gong Qiying checked. The Spirit Power needed to reach Level 3 City Lord Authority had surged to fifty thousand. Level 4 required five hundred thousand, while Level 5 simply displayed a string of question marks.

The road ahead was long.

After looking into it further, he gloomily discovered that many monsters filled overlapping roles and were simply unnecessary.

For example, the native Goblins of this world and the Bokoblins from "Zelda" were practically identical in role. Both were low-intelligence fodder troops, and their specific stats looked like this:

Goblin

Spirit Power Required Per Unit: 1

Vitality: F, Strength: E, Intelligence: F, Endurance: E+, Speed: F, Overall Combat Power: F

The average stats of a normal adult human were E.

Bokoblin

Spirit Power Required Per Unit: 3

Vitality: F, Strength: E+, Intelligence: G, Endurance: F, Speed: F, Overall Combat Power: F

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

"Not cost-effective enough."

Once Gong Qiying realized that monsters from fantasy works were more expensive, his excitement was greatly dampened.

"I'm still in the primitive accumulation stage. Every point of Spirit Power has to be carefully budgeted. Unless there are special circumstances, the dungeon's monsters still need to be mainly native monsters."

The Available Buildings had also received an update. Unsurprisingly, buildings from fantasy works had appeared as well, and Gong Qiying immediately spotted his favorites: Farron Keep and Plague Village.

Then he glanced at their cost and abruptly liked them much less.

In addition, he could use items from fantasy works as rewards in Zane Dungeon, though the Spirit Power required still made him wince.

Perhaps once he had ample Spirit Power in the future, adventurers might find an uncancellable straight sword, a red-and-white Poké Ball, or even Johnny Silverhand's arm in Zane Dungeon.

"Enough letting my thoughts wander."

Gong Qiying refocused on the Crystal Ball. A notebook lay before him, where he recorded the areas that needed improvement in real time.

Second by second, time passed until moonlight fell upon the land. There were two hours left before the dungeon closed.

Two hours later, the dungeon entrance would close. People could leave but not enter, and adventurers still inside would be forcibly teleported out after half an hour.

From midnight to three in the morning was the rest time Heaven had left for the dungeon.

"Nearly three hundred people died."

The number was somewhat beyond his expectations, but on second thought, it was the effect of a first-time kill.

In a few days, once word spread that Zane Dungeon had undergone a mutation and become much more difficult, the flow of visitors would likely weaken. It was like online games always earning the most during their launch period.

What Gong Qiying needed to consider was how to keep adventurers around.

Blindly piling on difficulty would greatly increase his Spirit Power in the short term, but what he wanted was sustainable development and steady gains over time.

"I should consider increasing the rewards."

Gong Qiying pondered for a while, then sighed again.

"But I don't have enough Spirit Power. Just repairing damaged buildings and traps, replenishing dead monsters, patching loopholes, and changing the map routes already cost a considerable amount. If I add more rewards on top of that..."

"No. In the short term, collecting Spirit Power still has to come first."

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

"How great would it be if tens of thousands of people came here to kill themselves?"

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

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

The Crystal Ball showed an Elf Girl with pointed ears drawing her longbow and blasting apart a Minotaur's head with one arrow, officially entering the Underground Mine on the lower level!

She was the first adventurer to reach the lower level without a scratch—at least on the surface. Everyone else who 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, or Godwyn, bore the responsibility of serving as the final boss and accepting challenges!

Once he died, reviving would consume a huge amount of Spirit Power—at least a thousand points. If he lacked enough Spirit Power, he would truly die, and the position of City Lord would be handed over to someone else!

Then why was 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 mechanisms in a row to reach it, along with several unrelated puzzles. In truth, no one had ever found him. He had created a fake final boss to accept challenges in his place.

According to his memories, all dungeon lords did this.

But in order to save costs, Gong Qiying had reduced the teleportation mechanisms until only two remained. He had only symbolically placed a pile of Skeleton Monsters and Blood Mosquitoes around the fake boss, so the chances of being found had greatly increased.

He had practically recreated an entire dungeon overnight. The workload was so immense that no human should have been able to accomplish it.

Oversights were inevitable.

"I didn't expect there to be such an expert among the masses. I hadn't considered things carefully enough."

He rubbed his brow and began selecting from the Available Monster.

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

When he saw a certain figure among the Available Monster, he suddenly grinned.

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

Crucible Knight (Axe Helm)

Spirit Power Required Per Unit: 800

Vitality: C, Strength: C+, Intelligence: C, Endurance: C, Speed: C, Overall Combat Power: C