"You have met the conditions for upgrading the Dungeon. Do you want to proceed with the upgrade?" The system's pop-up appeared in front of Lorne's eyes.
"Yes," he quietly clicked the confirmation button.
Ding dong!
A brief and uplifting melody resonated in his mind.
It seems like it was successful?
Lorne suddenly felt a little excited. He had been unable to activate this upgrade button before. It seems that this "Dungeon Construction System" has truly been fully unlocked.
At the same time, Lorne felt a wave of relief, feeling that his body was filled with power.
Apart from being able to resurrect within the Dungeon, "advanced demons" also had another ability: the more followers they had and the stronger they were, the more their own abilities would improve.
The difference between "advanced demons" and ordinary demons lies in whether they have a Dungeon. Their souls were deeply bonded with the Dungeon, to the extent that one could even say the "Dungeon" was an extension of their bodies.
However, Lorne was still different from normal advanced demons.
According to logic, the moment Helena evolved, Lorne should have immediately become stronger... but that didn't happen. Lorne seemed to have to manually upgrade within the System.
"Although I've leveled up, it seems like nothing has changed?" Lorne looked around.
His bedroom remained the same, like a ruin that could collapse at any moment.
Lorne sighed and reexamined the new "Dungeon Overview" interface:
[Dungeon Name]: Unnamed
[Dungeon Level]: 2
[Current Lord]: Lorne
[Number of Residents]: 2
[Overall Condition]: Half-collapsed
[Construction Level]: -90
[Military Power]: 678
[Magic Crystal Output]: 8/month
Hmm...
Overall, it was still far from satisfactory.
The magic crystal output had increased slightly, but the construction level was even lower than before... probably due to the damage caused by yesterday's battle.
The military power, on the other hand, had greatly increased to 678, compared to the pitiful 26 before. This was because Helena had already evolved into a "Dark Night Enchantress," greatly enhancing her combat power.
So, if we were to look at the data alone, she, alone, was several tens of times stronger than both Lorne and Aze combined.
"Helena is now truly one of the Four Heavenly Kings, huh." Lorne mumbled to himself. "Ordinary adventurers probably wouldn't stand a chance against her, right?"
Next, I should quickly make Aze stronger.
Lorne quietly calculated.
The "Mystical Orb" used earlier could be reused. Lorne had already put it back into the item column of the System and could take it out at any time.
However, when strengthening Helena, he had used over 5,000 Evil Points. To be fair, he would need to use the same amount for Aze... but where could I get so many Evil Points?
Before fully unlocking the System, Lorne had sporadically obtained a few Evil Points. For example, when boiling soup with Aze's bones. But these Evil Points accumulated through daily activities were simply not enough.
"I have to think of a way to acquire a large number of Evil Points in one go." Lorne sighed.
... Let's take a look at the other interfaces.
With this thought in mind, Lorne clicked open the "Quest" interface--
[Current Quest: Upgrade the Dungeon to Level 3. Upgrade conditions: Construction Level reaches 200, Number of Residents reaches 5. Reward: Bone Staff.]
Hmm, it means I have to renovate the Dungeon properly and recruit a few more subordinates? What is this Bone Staff as a reward? Judging by the name, it seems like an equipment...
Lorne couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.Because those two upgrade conditions are not easily achievable.
One requires money, and the other requires opportunity.
After half a year since coming here, Lorne had only gained the allegiance of Helena and Aze. He didn't want to randomly recruit companions like slimes or goblins from the street. After all, they would be living together in the future, so they should at least get along with each other.
Just then...
On the other side of the room, Lorne's old, creaking wooden bed began to make noise. Arianne, who was sleeping on it, turned over and started murmuring in her sleep:
"So...so much...can't fit...so much delicious food, I can't finish it."
At the same time, her stomach was growling.
Lorne couldn't help but chuckle.
In this vulnerable moment, she unexpectedly resembled a naive little girl. He thought. Perhaps, this is her true nature...
Last night, Arianne had occupied the wooden bed without any surprises, so Lorne had to sleep on the floor. It was the only bed in the whole dungeon, and Helena and Aze usually slept in coffins.
"It should be daylight by now. It's about time to make breakfast..."
Lorne closed the system interface and stood up, patting his butt.
What should he do today?
The menu had roasted mushrooms, fried mushrooms, boiled mushrooms...
Of course, all of them were highly poisonous.
...
Lorne went to the hall, lit the stove, and threw the few remaining purple mushrooms in the cabinet into the pot.
To be honest, there were barely enough mushrooms to even put between his teeth.
"There's another mouth to feed." Lorne shook his head and sighed. "Life isn't easy... looks like I'll have to find a job."
Without knowing when, Helena had already come up behind him.
"You're wrong, Lord Lorne." She said seriously, "It's not just one mouth. Miss Arianne, as a girl, has two mouths to feed! No, no... is it three?... Or four?"
"Hey hey, what are you saying? I can't understand anymore." Lorne retorted.
He had the feeling that Helena was getting faster and faster these past few days... was it because of Arianne's presence? Did Arianne inspire her?
"Lord Lorne, there is still much for you to learn." Helena patted Lorne's shoulder and sighed, "But let's not talk about that for now... look, I've got a treasure!"
As she spoke, she pulled out a long, black and thick object from somewhere.
It was a dead, proper viper snake.
... It was a real viper, don't think otherwise.
"Oh damn, Helena..." Lorne asked in astonishment, "Where did you get this thing?"
"Hehe, I had to dig through half a mountain to find it last night." Helena proudly held her head high, "I heard that if a man eats it, he'll have endless energy... that way, you can feed Miss Arianne! Oh, you have to swallow it alive for it to work!"
Lorne couldn't help but feel a tingling sensation on his scalp.
"Spare me, will you? I'm not Bear Guy. But thank you. It's a good source of protein. I'll grill it later and we can all eat it together."
With that, Lorne reached his hand out and patted her forehead.
"Tsk, useless man!"
Helena turned her face away unhappily.
...
"Hey, the taste is pretty good! I didn't know you were such a great cook, Lorne." Arianne praised with a mouthful of snake meat.
"Well, Helena worked very hard to catch it. It's... a type of river fish." Lorne thought for a moment and decided not to tell the truth, so as not to affect their appetite.
"River fish? Don't lie to me, this is clearly snake meat." Arianne replied, "It's a taste that brings back memories. I used to catch snakes and eat them when I was young."
Eating snakes regularly?
Lorne couldn't help but be surprised.
What kind of childhood had this person gone through...Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, Aze suddenly froze. His hands went limp, and the fork clanged onto the tabletop.
"Crack... crack crack?"
Meaning: Is this... a snake?
He convulsed for a moment.
"Well, proteins six times more than beef," Lorne admitted, thinking to himself, hey, come on, you're a skeleton after all, even more timid than girls?
At this point, Arianne interjected, "Speaking of which, it's really unbelievable that you can understand him."
"Actually, we can't really understand him, we can just roughly guess the meaning, probably because we've been together for so long," Lorne replied. "Hmm... after we finish eating, I'll go to the town and look for a job. Now that Helena has become so strong and there's a saint in town, I can finally go out with peace of mind..."
"Why look for a job? Why?" Arianne asked in surprise, swallowing the snake meat in her mouth.
"Why... of course, it's to earn money. Otherwise, what do we eat? You saw it too, almost nothing grows on this bare mountain," Lorne explained.
"If you need money, I can give it to you," Arianne said casually. She rummaged in the wide sleeves of her robe and pulled out a bulging leather pouch, then nonchalantly tossed it onto the table.
Clang-clang!
The bag made a crisp and pleasant sound of metal hitting each other.
Lorne's eyes went wide.
Judging by the sound, it should be filled with gold coins.
A bag full of gold coins!
"Could it be... you're the legendary rich lady?" he said in a daze.
