The Romance of a Vast Map

"That's quite a generous gesture, Godwyn."

The Lord's Room in the Zane Dungeon.

A city lord with the appearance of a normal human, dressed as a muscular man with a mohawk and cloak, uttered a sigh, his voice so rough it seemed capable of crushing stones.

He was none other than Pan Sen, the Dungeon Lord had once warmly invited Gong Qiying to open a dungeon in the Warrior Country.

"To make your debut in the Warrior Country with such a huge map right off the bat, I can feel your confidence!"

"Be careful not to use up all your mental energy," the old acquaintance—the protagonist fighter of Glory Dungeon—smirked, hesitated for a moment, and said, "If you need some, I can lend you a little bit, just a tiny bit."

"If that's the case, then I'll seriously consider whether or not to keep you as a backup hidden energy source."

Lord Godwyn of the Sien Dungeon Lord, or rather, Gong Qiying, stopped writing and drawing in his notebook, which was full of suggestions for future revisions, and walked over to the two lords.

Upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that the entire map of the Zane Dungeon Warrior Country Branch City is laid out prominently in front of Pan and the Gladiator. However, it is only a rough model, and it would be difficult to examine the map design of each small area in detail.

Te Pi is right, this newly appeared area is indeed ridiculously large, so large that even the other Dungeon Lord find it unbelievable.

"We didn't originally plan to open it up to this size; the initial plan was just to open up this part of the map."

Gong Qiying then sketched out the Limgrave region on the microscopic model.

"But there were some hiccups along the way. I spent some time in Red dealing with the escaped Sealed Object. During this time, besides dealing with the Sealed Object, I was also preparing for the branch city of the Warrior Country, designing all sorts of things. As a result, the piles up and the map got bigger and bigger."

He spread his hands and said helplessly, "The final product's area is several times larger than originally planned."

"Then you could have released it in stages, one at a time. Aren't you afraid of running out of energy if you release it all at once?" the Gladiator asked, puzzled. In his opinion, Gong Qiying was asking for trouble.

The area is too large, which is not only a burden on Spirit Power, but also makes adventurers feel helpless when they first enter the place, not knowing where to start. They may end up wasting the map by trying to do everything at once.

Moreover, it's still unknown what the Warrior Country's attitude will be towards the Zane Dungeon; making such a large investment all of a sudden is too risky.

"The meaning of life lies in adventure, brother!" Pan Sen said, getting all fired up.

"Pan Sen is right!" Gong Qiying smiled and extended his hand. "A life without adventure is meaningless. Our drill must break through the sky!"

Pan Sen understood immediately, and the two of them gave each other a high five, the crisp sound echoing throughout the room.

Are you two really that close? And what's with the drill? Their behavior must have made the Gladiator dizzy.

The area of the new map released by Gong Qiying this time is indeed unprecedentedly large.

Besides the fact that he genuinely had nothing better to do while playing Parasite and thus got tired of constantly adding content to the new map, he also had his own personal motives:

If it's not a large map, what's it called? Elden Ring!

What you see is what you get – that's the key!

However, the specifics of this great technique will have to be left for adventurers to discover for themselves to gain a clear understanding.

In addition, while researching the new map, Gong Qiying was also patching things to make everything look more reasonable. The biggest patch was the place where people could choose to Remembrance the Elden Lord when they entered the game.

Why single out each leader for a separate "Remembrance" event? It's not about limiting the map to those Remembrance. For example, choosing Godrick's Remembrance would only allow you to explore Limgrave, and choosing Radahn's Remembrance would only allow you to explore Caelid. That would be pointless.

The true purpose of the Remembrance is that when an adventurer selects a certain boss's Remembrance, the corresponding boss will appear in the place where he should be, waiting to be challenged. Other bosses will be in situations where challenges cannot be triggered in accordance with the plot. As adventurers unlock more Remembrance, these unlocked Remembrance will merge, eventually allowing all bosses in all locations to be challenged.

Except for Lake Liurnia.

Why go through all this trouble?

That's a very pertinent question, because the root of all evil is Lake Liurnia!

This area was separated and opened to the public ahead of time by Gong Qiying, who also drastically altered the background story. It can no longer be compared with the likes of Limgrave!

However, he wanted to connect Lake Liurnia, located in the Arnor Kingdom, with other regions in the Warrior Country, which would create a great entertainment effect. But what if the art styles were incompatible? Thus, the concept of Remembrance came into being.

When an adventurer chooses the Full Moon Queen's Remembrance, Lake Liurnia will revert to its original form, and the boss will change to the Full Moon Queen, instead of the modified Full Moon Queen's Mimic Tear.

In other words, Lake Liurnia was divided into two parts in Sein.

One is a modified version focused on daily life, and the other is the original version focused on exploration. The two are like parallel lines and do not affect each other. However, adventurers can enter the Zane Dungeon Warrior Country Branch City through the modified version. When these adventurers return, Lake Liurnia will have become the original version.

This is the patch that Gong Qiying came up with for now.

Besides the patches, there are also many other changes such as monster location changes, monster strength enhancements, changes to dropped items, and the location of afterimages, which shows how much free time Gong Qiying had while fighting the parasites.

"Fine, how you design the dungeon is your own business, it's none of our concern."

The Gladiator shook his head speechlessly and said, "What do you think of the issue we discussed before regarding this country?"

At this point, Gong Qiying also stopped smiling and said, "I can see it quite clearly."

"So what did you see?"

"A total of forty-seven people entered my dungeon this time. Apart from twenty-three civilians who did not dare to explore at all, the remaining twenty-four people explored to varying degrees, and one of them even went to a very far place."

Gong Qiying flipped through the notebook and said:

"But of these twenty-four people, apart from a few I know, almost all of them are using magic to fight."

It's hard to imagine that even the bodyguards of Te Pi, who were caught up in the Zane Dungeon, actually pulled out magic wands and used fancy magic to fight monsters. The bodyguards were also quite skilled in hand-to-hand combat and could use melee weapons proficiently, but the others relied entirely on magic.

If he hadn't been told this was the Warrior Country, he would have thought he'd brought the Magic Association into the fold.

"Yes, this is the current state of the Warrior Country."

The Gladiator, his face darkening, said, "They say they want to promote magic Warrior, but when it comes to actual combat, these people all use magic. They avoid swords and such whenever possible. And Godwyn, have you noticed a certain characteristic in their expressions?"

Gong Qiying stared at several people using magic. When they cast spells, their arms were weak, and they couldn't dodge in time. When attacked by monsters, they would writhe and cry out, and they were constantly thinking about washing their hands.

Two words escaped his lips:

"Sissy?"

The Gladiator didn't understand what "sissy" meant, but judging from the word "sissy," he figured it was probably what he was thinking, so he nodded and said:

"Learning magic is harmless in itself, but these people seem to be losing their fighting spirit. I don't understand what's going on, but..."

He said through gritted teeth:

"The number of players in my dungeon has been significantly affected!"

His Glory Dungeon is all about intense battles between Warrior, but now the player traffic is declining, Warrior the refresh rate of the Glory Stone Tablet that display the rankings of the fighters has slowed down considerably.

The potential changes taking place in the Warrior Country have already had a real impact on his dungeon management!

"The quality of the adventurers here isn't good either," Pan Sen chimed in. "Even the miners who come to mine every day are affected."

The two city magistrates were indignant and couldn't even understand what had caused the change in people.

Gong Qiying understood. The purpose of these two city lords bringing him here was quite clear:

Reinvigorate the spirit of the Warrior Country's inhabitants, regardless of gender!

"Make the Warrior again!" the Gladiator shouted.

"He's right!" Pan Sen shouted as well.

Gong Qiying was also moved by this exhilarating scene, and then asked:

"So what should we do?"

Unexpectedly, the two of them turned their gazes to him simultaneously, and at that moment, silence spoke louder than words.

Gong Qiying's lips twitched, and he pointed at himself, saying, "So you dragged me here just because you're out of options?"

The two nodded quite honestly.

"Brother, I've been observing your dungeon for a long time," Pan Sen said sincerely. "Your dungeon has a kind of magic that can turn even the most timid weakling into someone who dares to draw their sword against an invincible being."

The Gladiator nodded and said, "I've observed some adventurers who have been to your dungeon and then come here. Some of them used to hide behind their companions when they encountered monsters, but after coming back from you, they're like completely different people. They take the initiative to attack any monster they encounter and even shout that they'll leave their souls to me. They're even more ferocious when fighting humans. I see the style of the old-fashioned Warrior in those people."

"So, Godwyn," his gaze was quite sincere, "You must have a way to reverse this bad trend, right?"

What if I said my method was to transform people from effeminate men into precious, soulful beings?

This method has been proven effective by examples such as Leon, but Gong Qiying inevitably gets a bit tired of watching a group of nobles engage in a marathon free-for-all in the dungeon every day.

"Leave it to me, I will definitely turn people into the purest Warrior! Of course, you will also have to assist me."

Gong Qiying said with a firm gaze.

This time, he wants to transform the people of the Warrior Country into the purest Warrior.

Absolutely no expensive items!