In the central district of Base No. 12's inner city, there was a dedicated military zone.
It was heavily guarded by the base's troops, with powerful high-level Bronze and even Silver Rank beastmasters stationed both openly and in secret.
Under such heavy protection, it was naturally a vital location for all of Base No. 12. It contained a total of thirty-six low-level Dungeon Spaces.
Unlike the Dungeon Spaces in the wilderness, however, these were all low-level spaces opened specifically for Base No. 12 City by powerful human beastmasters.
Dungeon Spaces did not form naturally.
They were transit stations along the spatial passages that exotic beasts and alien races opened to invade Aqua Blue Planet.
The origin of exotic beasts was classified information, but alien races were intelligent life from other inhabited planets in the universe.
Yet it was a fact that exotic beasts and alien races from other inhabited planets had invaded Aqua Blue Planet, causing the Great Cataclysm of the past.
Dungeon Spaces were a product of the universe's own suppressive force.
Whether it was an invasion route for exotic beasts or an invasion from another planet, forming a permanent passage would inevitably produce this special transitional space known as a Dungeon Space.
It could serve as a route for invaders, or as a passage for a counterinvasion.
Who was the invader and who was invaded depended on the relative strength of the two sides-on whose fist was bigger.
Ordinary Dungeon Spaces were permanently stabilized Dungeon Spaces.
They imposed strict limits on the life levels of the exotic beasts, aliens, and beastmasters passing through them.
If a life-form exceeding that limit entered a Dungeon Space,
it would either face heavenly punishment from the universe!
Or it would directly shatter the entire Dungeon Space, sweeping everyone into the turbulent currents of spacetime, with death certain and no chance of survival!
There was also another kind of Dungeon Space: a temporary Dungeon Space.
These Dungeon Spaces were usually opened by the most powerful beings among exotic beasts and alien races, and could only remain open briefly.
But they placed no restriction on the life levels of those passing through.
However, the more powerful the life-forms passing through such a Dungeon Space, the greater the price the side opening it had to pay.
Normally, the cost in energy and resources was ten times that of the highest-level life-form passing through.
After humanity rose with base cities as its core, powerful humans could also open Dungeon Spaces and use them to launch counterinvasions against exotic beasts and alien races.
There were now powerful humans with spacetime-type contracted beasts who specialized in opening low-level Dungeon Spaces and invading the other side.
Base No. 12 City had paid a tremendous amount of resources and wealth to open these thirty-six low-level Dungeon Spaces.
The main base and the Human Alliance had also provided some support in resources and wealth.
Even so, Base No. 12 City had endured hard times for quite a while afterward!
Since Dungeon Spaces could bring invasions, why did humanity still open them?
It was because the concentration of dark energy inside Dungeon Spaces was five to ten times that on Blue Water Star!
They could raise the dark energy level of the entire base.
That was one aspect.
The other was that Dungeon Spaces produced vast quantities of resources, which could allow a human base to stabilize, develop, and grow stronger, providing endless, lasting benefits.
That was why the upper ranks of Base No. 12 had resolved to open thirty-six Dungeon Spaces, even if they had to eat dirt.
Sure enough, over the following ten years, Base No. 12 endured a period of hardship, but its beastmasters developed extremely rapidly.
Now the entire base had fully recovered and was preparing to open even more human-controlled Dungeon Spaces, ready to make a push toward becoming a level-three base.
Jiang Ziliu's father, Jiang Yuan, had told him all of this during casual conversations.
"Pass!"
Countless soldiers guarded the Dungeon Space zone of the base, inside and out, conducting meticulous identity checks.
Jiang Ziliu took out his beastmaster badge for inspection.
It was an identification document specifically for beastmasters, issued through the school.
With this, you could prove that you belonged to this base, and only had to pay five hundred yuan each time you entered or left.
But even without this beastmaster ID, you could still enter.
You would simply be treated as a beastmaster from another base and have to hand over one-tenth of your gains from the Dungeon Space, or pay an entry fee of at least three thousand yuan!
Next, a base soldier held up a device and scanned the Contract Mark between his brows.
Once awakened, a Contract Mark would never change.
Because it was bestowed by the universe and completely different for every beastmaster, its unchanging nature made it the best proof of identity!
If beastmasters who had committed crimes tried to sneak in, a single scan of their Contract Marks could establish that their identities did not match.
Electricity was in very short supply throughout Base No. 12, but the power supply here was plentiful.
The main reason for the electricity shortage was that humanity's technological development had skewed somewhat. Most of its technological capabilities went toward strengthening control over Dungeon Spaces and researching matters related to contracted beasts.
Nothing could be allowed to go wrong with the Dungeon Spaces. After all, the other side could invade through them too.
Jiang Ziliu paid five hundred yuan and entered the area without trouble.
Many beastmasters had gathered here. Jiang Ziliu even saw quite a few young beastmasters around ten years old moving about, with adult protectors accompanying them.
Young as these little fellows were, most had reached Black Iron Grade!
They were clearly from the wealthy, privileged class of the base city. They had undergone their beastmaster awakening early, and training in Dungeon Spaces had already become as routine as their daily meals.
In this higher-level world, the gap between ordinary people and the upper classes was also growing ever wider.
They lingered here to socialize, exchange what they had for what they needed, and expand their networks along the way.
Jiang Ziliu did not linger.
He headed toward Dungeon Space No. 1.
The entrance to Dungeon Space No. 1 was a gateway resembling a black curtain.
Its frame was constructed from the bones of many high-level exotic beasts. Runes gleaming with dark energy covered the bones, which were inlaid with precious essence crystals and large quantities of high-level beast cores.
Beast cores were the solid energy cores of exotic beasts. They contained stable dark energy and could serve as substitutes for essence crystals.
Gateways like these stood on both sides of a Dungeon Space.
Humanity designated gateways of this kind originating on the exotic beasts' side as Gates of the End!
It was the Gates of the End that had unleashed humanity's original catastrophe of destruction and ushered in the first era of the Great Cataclysm, hence their name.
The humans of today were all descendants of the humans who had slowly risen again after the era of the Great Cataclysm.
The other kind of Dungeon Space gateway, which led to other inhabited planets in the universe, was called a Gate of Apocalypse!
Dungeon Space No. 1 had been the first to open and was also the lowest-level one. The highest life level it could accommodate was Black Iron Grade.
Most of the exotic beasts living inside were Gray Rock Grade.
This level of strength made the Dungeon Space just right for Jiang Ziliu to explore and train in relative safety.
It was also the designated training dungeon for countless young people from the base.
Jiang Ziliu stepped through the gateway. After a dizzying sensation, he appeared on a raised platform at the edge of a wetland interspersed with swamps and forest.
Passing through this gateway involved a spatial transit, which was why he felt dizzy.
An army of around a hundred human beastmasters was also stationed inside the Dungeon Space gateway to guard against unexpected incidents.
A small fortress had been built here.
Jiang Ziliu bought a map of Space No. 1 and detailed information from a shop in the fortress. Only after reading them carefully did he leave the fortress and venture deeper into Space No. 1.
He had not walked far along the stone road built by humans when he noticed something wriggling in a mud pool.
It was a Slime.
It was only the size of a human head, a basic type of exotic beast in this Dungeon Space.
Ordinary Slimes were one- to five-star Gray Rock Grade exotic beasts.
With preparation, a human could kill one with a single slash.
But if you underestimated it because it was weak, you would be in for trouble.
Sure enough, the moment this Slime sensed a living presence, it attacked Jiang Ziliu.
It swiftly spat a lump of sludge at him.
The lump of sludge flew extremely fast. Had Jiang Ziliu not been on guard, he would definitely have been hit.
Slimes were a special kind of soft-bodied animal that ate anything.
The offensive sludge they spat contained their gastric juices, with naturally paralyzing mud toxins as well as large quantities of toxins from saprophytic microorganisms.
If that lump of sludge hit him, Jiang Ziliu would immediately be poisoned through skin contact.
Before long, he would be unable to move.
After attacking, a Slime would immediately slip beneath the sludge to hide, waiting a while before giving chase.
It could clearly pick up the scent of the toxins on the poisoned victim and locate its prey.
Then, once its prey could no longer move, it would rush forward and inject more Slime gastric juices, thoroughly dissolving and poisoning its prey to death before sucking up its softened flesh and blood for food.
They were also creatures that dared to hunt anything, unless the other party's life pressure was too terrifying and the gap too great.
Jiang Ziliu had now become this Slime's hunting target.
He was inexperienced as well. The correct approach would have been to summon his contracted beast immediately and let it handle the situation.
Now, after dodging, he finally reacted and summoned the Mutated Lightning Snake.
The white Lightning Snake received the order to attack and activated Lightning Godspeed. In a flash of lightning, it coiled around the sinking Slime, then unleashed a barrage of electric current, electrocuting the Slime outright.
I'm hungry. Can I eat it?
The Mutated Lightning Snake sent Jiang Ziliu the question, and he naturally agreed.
Then he watched the Lightning Snake bite onto the dead Slime and begin swallowing it directly. Before long, it had swallowed the entire Slime into its belly.
Slimes were basic exotic beasts that could serve as food for all exotic beasts, so naturally, Lightning Snakes could eat them too.
In truth, Jiang Ziliu had been nervous the entire time, because he had never experienced a fight to the death.
After his first battle, in which he had been impressively bad, Jiang Ziliu finally remembered his goals in entering the Dungeon Space.
Gather resources and train his two exotic beasts' combat abilities!