The birth of the very first contracted adventurerimmediately created a sense of urgency among everyone else.
"Lord!"
"I want to apply for a contract!"
"I'll just start with a two-star Essence Soul for now!"
"Boss Lord, I've got a Charger Essence Soul. Please contract me right away!"
"..."
Another seven or eight adventurers submitted contract applications.
They paid high prices to buy souls from other adventurers, or pooled and borrowed Essence Soul resources to initiate recovery transactions. The moment they scraped together 100 Contribution Points, they immediately applied to become contracted adventurers of Miracle City.
No five-star Essence Soul?
That actually wasn't a big problem.
Because using a five-star Essence Soul wasn't mandatory.
New dungeons didn't have many contract slots to begin with.High-quality dungeons had contract slots that were even more precious.
Forget the Essence Soul grade for now.The priority was to get on Miracle City's ship first!
Each adventurer could only construct one life soul per tier. Different life-soul combinations produced different effects, greatly influencing an adventurer's ability framework. However, this didn't mean that once a life soul was set, it could never be changed.
Once a dungeon developed to a certain stage,facilities and services for replacing or restructuring life souls naturally became available.
Life-soul replacement or restructuring would cause cultivation loss,but it was generally within acceptable limits.
If one didn't want to replace or restructure their life soul, there were still other ways to obtain five-star Essence Souls. For example, special facilities could be used to forge and strengthen Essence Souls, allowing them to rank up.
In short,there were plenty of methods.
An adventurer's growth path wasn't that rigid.
The most urgent thing right nowwas boarding Miracle City as soon as possible!
Even Kanzaki Ren was a little surprised by the enthusiasm of these adventurers.
Nancy Lia was equally shocked. She understood adventurers extremely well and knew that choosing which dungeon to contract was a major life decision.
It affected career planning and long-term development.
To attract adventurers into contracts, rookie lords usually had to offer massive incentives, making huge sacrifices and concessions.
But adventurers recruited purely through benefits were also the most likely to defect. Once they found a better dungeon or another lord offered a higher price, they'd leave without hesitation.
And yet now—
No benefits.They even had to pay out of pocket.
And still they were scrambling to contract?
This was the highest form of recognition and trust toward Miracle City!
Nancy Lia finally seemed to understand why Boss Kanzaki insisted on creating dungeons this way.
Only a dungeon crafted like a work of artcould earn adventurers' genuine loyalty from the heart.
However.
Faced with such passionate adventurers,Kanzaki Ren did not accept everyone.
Because contracting adventurers consumed Mental Energy. Spending too much at once would affect territorial development.
Moreover—
The slots were limited.
They couldn't all be used at once.
That way, adventurers would remain motivated,desperately farming and submitting souls!
Kanzaki Ren therefore announced that starting today, only five adventurers would be contracted per day. If applicants exceeded five, selection would be based on total accumulated Contribution Points.
In other words—
Higher contributionmeant a greater chance of being contracted.
Kanzaki Ren selected, in order:Blackstone Hammer King, Pig King, Lone Wolf, and Kaze Nemuri for contracts.
Blackstone Hammer King and Kaze Nemuri both contracted two-star Hunter Essence Souls as transitional choices. Lone Wolf contracted a Smoker, while Pig King contracted the three-star Charger Essence Soul he already possessed.
Total Mental Energy consumed: 120 points.
Solitary Blade sighed,"Kaze, was this really necessary? You originally had a four-star life soul, and now you've swapped to a two-star one… Once the Spider Lily Corps captain finds out, she's going to explode. I don't think we'll be able to explain this."
"No problem. No need to explain."
Kaze Nemuri replied casually,"The quality's lower, sure, but it's temporary. As long as nobody tells my sister, she won't notice anytime soon. I'll prove my choice was right. I trust Lord Kanzaki."
Unbinding from a dungeon always caused severe cultivation loss.
There were two scenarios.
The first was passive unbinding, such as when a contracted dungeon was destroyed. This would almost completely wipe out cultivation.
The second was active unbinding, such as abandoning one dungeon to contract another. This was equivalent to overlaying a new life soul over the old one. Because the new soul absorbed the old soul's energy, about 50% of cultivation could usually be preserved.
Because of this—
When a dungeon was clearly declining,contracted adventurers with low loyalty would immediately cut their losses and flee.
Most of the time, don't expect these people to live and die with the dungeon. This was one of the reasons lords hated adventurers so deeply.
...
As the Chaotic Tide receded,today's income was as follows:
Soul Crystal income reached 1,255.Gross Mental Energy income reached 2,470.
Essence Soul recovery and output data:
One-star Zombie Essence Souls: 138 / 211
Two-star Zombie Essence Souls: 4 / 12
Three-star Zombie Essence Souls: 1 / 4
Five-star Essence Souls: 1 / 1 (used)
Passive Mental Energy expenditure: 353Contracted adventurer expenditure: 150
Current remaining resources:Mental Energy 2,564Soul Crystals 1,339Material Essence 751
Another day of massive profits!
Kanzaki Ren stored the Essence Souls in the territorial warehouse.
Then he spent 1,000 Soul Crystals, 500 Mental Energy, and 500 Material Essence to upgrade the territorial core.
[Upgrade Successful!][Current Territorial Core Tier: Tier 2!]
The cost was heavy, but absolutely necessary.
A Tier-2 core increased adventurer capacity by 100.That alone was already significant.
But that wasn't the key point.
The most important change was that a Tier-2 territorial core could operate secret realms requiring up to 5,000 Mental Energy!
Only with this could the already planned third stage and story mode be created, or additional narrative and gameplay modes developed, further enriching the dungeon's depth and appeal.
Remaining Soul Crystals: 339.
That spending was brutal.
Finances were once again critical.
He needed to recover funds quickly.
Otherwise, territory construction and troop creation would be impossible.
Kanzaki Ren planned to sell part of the stored Essence Souls for Soul Crystals.
He took out 50 ordinary zombie souls, but hesitated on pricing. He listed 5 of them at 20 Soul Crystals each as a test.
One-star gray souls usually sold for 8 to 15 Soul Crystals. Very few ever reached 20.
Listing only five was just testing the waters.
Even a mosquito was still meat.
These souls were earned by brutally farming adventurers.Of course they had to be squeezed for maximum value.
However—
After half an hour,there was no movement at all.
Was the price too high?
No rush. He'd observe for a while and gradually adjust to find the optimal price point.
The territory was closed for the night, but compared to previous days, Miracle City was unusually lively.
A total of 36 adventurers chose to stay overnight at the inn. Once given permission to remain inside the city, there was no way this group would sit quietly.
"Lord!"
"We're hosting a bonfire party!"
"Come join us!"
The thirty-six adventurers lit several bonfires, brought supplies from Blackstone Town, and pooled together spicy snacks, cola, instant noodles, chocolate, sausages, and various local specialties. Everything was piled together into a celebratory feast.
For a time—
Singing and dancing.Endless chatter.A warm, joyful atmosphere.
Kanzaki Ren didn't put on airs.
He joined in together with Arno and Aya.
Miracle City had never been this lively.
Nancy Lia sat among the adventurers, eating top-grade delicacies from the secret realm. Her face was filled with happiness, mixed with a strange sense of unreality.
She had seen many dungeons.
In most of them, the relationship between lords and adventurers was terrible.
To lords, adventurers were greedy pests, like locusts passing through.
To adventurers, lords were sinister, exploitative factory owners, ruthless harvesters.
And yet—
Adventurers lived because of dungeons.Dungeons grew because of adventurers.
Their fates were tightly intertwined, their relationship always tense and contradictory.
Miracle City felt different.
Although Kanzaki Ren and the adventurers often mocked each other and played small mind games, the adventurers clearly respected this extraordinarily talented lord. And the lord himself had lofty artistic ambitions, constantly refining top-tier secret realms.
A dungeon with such an atmospheremade Nancy Lia feel truly comfortable living here.
Which made her hope even more sincerelythat this dungeon would continue to grow.