I Copy, Copy, Copy

When Si Telan opened her eyes, she saw a familiar ceiling.

Damn, the Resurrection Room!

"Hiss... how did I die?"

The bearded priest beside her shook his head, tossed out, "Your companions are waiting outside. Don't forget to pay the resurrection fee," and left.

Si Telan forced herself out of bed as memories from before her death surfaced in her mind.

When the Crucible Knight saw her drink a potion, he charged at her like a madman. It gave her quite a fright, and before she knew it, her abdomen had been sliced wide open.

Fortunately, she had been a famous athletic student representative in the Elven Forest a hundred years ago, or she would have died on the spot.

After fighting for several rounds, she finally found a chance to escape. Just as she was about to run—

A blue creature that looked like a Slime stepped on her shadow!

Si Telan was trying to escape!

A wild Wobbuffet appeared!

The wild Wobbuffet activated its Ability: Shadow Tag, stepping on Si Telan's shadow!

Si Telan failed to escape!

Wobbuffet, the Patient Pokémon. Its Ability is Shadow Tag. It prevents enemies from escaping by stepping on their shadows.

Spirit Power required per unit: 17

Life: C, Strength: F-, Intelligence: D, Endurance: E, Speed: E-, Overall Combat Power: E

Then Si Telan was cut in half by the pursuing Crucible Knight.

"What the hell was that strange creature?!"

Si Telan gritted her teeth in fury. She had never seen a creature like Wobbuffet before, much less heard of any "magic" that could interrupt an escape by stepping on someone's shadow.

"And that brown knight, using Weapon Skills and magic I've never seen before... Even the patterns on his armor make no sense. Where did he come from?"

She frowned deeply.

The Elven Forest was a kingdom built by elves. Its Elven Grand Archives claimed to record thousands of years of history, and one could find any ancient text within it.

She had once read through every magic spell that still existed or had been lost to history. She considered herself something of a magic expert.

Yet she had never seen "magic" like the Crucible Knight's "turning its mouth into a frog's vocal sac to breathe fire" or "suddenly growing a golden dragon-like tail from its back"!

And that greatly stirred her desire to explore!

Getting out of bed and pushing open the door, Si Telan came face-to-face with two girls, one tall and one short.

The shorter one, a young girl with a noble air, cried out angrily, "I'm so mad, Fei Li! Once I get home, I'm putting out a bounty! Whoever clears Zane Dungeon first gets ten thousand gold coins!"

The girl called Fei Li said with a smile, "It's good that you're willing to go home, my lady. Ten thousand gold coins could attract even top-tier adventurers."

Another young miss who had run away from home to experience ordinary life?

Hai Nisi's plain clothes did not fool Si Telan. She only glanced at her twice before losing interest.

When she reached the hall, her companions sitting on the bench were already waving at her.

Silver Rank adventurer, Upper Sword Shield Warrior Xiu En—a huge, muscular man.

Bronze Rank adventurer, mid-level elemental mage Ai Li—a clear-eyed, innocent student who had just graduated from the mage academy.

Bronze Rank adventurer, mid-level Shadow Walker Dan Ya—an excellent lockpicker who occasionally dropped the ball.

Si Telan walked over to her companions and clenched her fist. "Let's go. We'll continue challenging the dungeon!"

"Wait," Xiu En suddenly waved his hand and said:

"The City Lord of this city wants us to take on a commission. Do you want to have a look?"

"Hahaha, Pokémon are so much fun!"

Gong Qiying repeatedly watched Si Telan's battle recording, especially the horrified expression on her face when Wobbuffet cut off her retreat.

It was simply delicious!

"Pika pika," Pikachu cried twice from his arms, curling into a ball and falling asleep in his embrace.

"The Pokémon I can use right now aren't very strong, so I can only work with their Abilities. But I don't necessarily have to use Pokémon."

There were many kinds of monsters he could use. He had only summoned Wobbuffet because its Ability happened to be useful.

"Dong, dong."

A distant bell rang out. The dungeon had finally entered its rest period.

The adventurers still lingering inside were all expelled by an irresistible force. The savage monsters stood in place as if they had lost their minds, unable to move. The mechanisms stopped, every flame went out, and the dungeon instantly fell silent.

Gong Qiying spread out the notes he had made that day, opened the dungeon's miniature model, and prepared to improve its incomplete areas.

"Forty-seven percent mortality on the upper level, seventeen percent on the middle level, thirty-six percent on the lower level... Hmm. The middle level has the lowest death rate because many people encountered a Teleportation Trap on the upper level and got sent directly to the lower level, never even passing through the middle level?"

But aside from that, he truly had put the least thought into the middle level.

An abandoned Village built above a poison pool? Very distinctive!

An Underground Mine filled with traps and mechanisms? Very distinctive!

A dense forest with monsters hiding in the bushes?

Boring.

So making the middle level more distinctive became the problem he needed to solve.

Zane Dungeon
Remaining Spirit Power: 3655
Spirit Power required for daily operation: 210

Because he had summoned a Crucible Knight, the Spirit Power required for daily operation had doubled.

This Spirit Power was used to automatically resurrect monsters, repair damaged buildings, reset traps, and so on. The Spirit Power needed to resurrect each monster was one-tenth of its cost, which seemed quite cheap at first glance.

But for some reason, even if they did not die, he still had to spend that Spirit Power. Gong Qiying could not make sense of it no matter how hard he thought.

"So for cost-effectiveness, do I have to arrange for monsters to go die as much as possible?"

No need to think about that for now. His current goal was to improve the traps.

Gong Qiying opened the available buildings and selected structures such as Plague Village, Farron Keep, the Great Hollow, and Sellia Crystal Tunnel to inspect their miniature models.

There were simply too many available buildings. His eyes were starting to glaze over.

The buildings currently available were all made from "ordinary materials," such as fortresses piled from sturdy boulders and fences made from ordinary wood.

As for buildings made from "special materials," he had unlocked very few so far. Most would have to wait until his permissions were upgraded.

What counted as special materials?

For example, the Forging Stones produced in Sellia Crystal Tunnel and minerals that only existed in Elden Ring counted as special-material structures.

Any material that did not exist in this world, or anything containing magic power, was considered a special material. The Spirit Power required was far greater than for ordinary materials.

Gong Qiying could spend Spirit Power to crudely transplant these buildings into his dungeon, but the downside was obvious.

Because these maps had been designed for undead with no knees.

But the adventurers he had to face could not only jump, they could fly. And they were especially good at tearing down houses.

Therefore, Gong Qiying decided to copy!

Copy the design ideas of these maps, copy their general layouts, copy their enemy placements!

But every design that did not fit reality had to be changed!

The available buildings were very user-friendly, allowing Gong Qiying to dismantle and use any individual structure from a map. From something as small as a torch or a table, to something as large as a cliff, a Suspension Bridge, or a house, everything could be separated and used.

After mixing and matching them, the Spirit Power spent was even less than directly copying a map wholesale.

Copy, copy, copy, copy, copy! I am the greatest copier in the world!

Red Light shone from Gong Qiying's eyes, and Pikachu in his arms trembled slightly.