No half measures anymore!
Kanzaki Ren moved immediately.
He led the adventurers straight to the camp once guarded by Kurohone.
This camp had been established by Kurohone himself, and was therefore known as Kurohone Camp. More than ten goblins had been stationed there, but by the time Kanzaki Ren arrived, all of them had already been wiped out by the adventurers.
[Mental Energy -150]
[Divine Stone Activation Successful!]
[You have successfully occupied "Kurohone Camp" and obtained "Chaotic Treasure Chest (Gray)" ×1!]
At this point, Miracle City now controlled three outposts:Red Claw Village, Red Rock Camp, and Kurohone Camp!
Kanzaki Ren did not hesitate.
He opened the treasure chest immediately.
[You have opened the "Chaotic Treasure Chest"! Soul Crystals +400, "Blueprint: Crematorium" +1!]
Another blueprint!
[Blueprint: Crematorium]Tier-1 Special BuildingConstruction Cost: 300 Soul Crystals, 100 Mental Energy, 100 Material Essence
The Crematorium was a common but extremely important facility.
It did not increase territorial capacity, but it provided a critical function. As its name suggested, it was used to incinerate corpses.
Do not underestimate this function.
For dungeons, it was vital. In fact, it could drastically shorten the time required to conquer Umbral City.
Why?
Because Dark Territories generally possessed resurrection abilities.
They could rapidly restore their fighting strength.
The Crematorium directly countered this. As long as a Dark corpse had been dead for less than ten hours, it could be thrown into the Crematorium and completely destroyed. This permanently erased the soul and even allowed partial resource recovery.
And the gains did not stop there.
The adventurers captured twenty-five dwarf laborers.
These neutral-race individuals were all incorporated into the territory without exception. With this, Miracle City now had forty residents. While still a small number, it was enough to help handle daily affairs.
Next—
The battlefield was cleared.
Seventy-six goblin corpseswere all thrown into the Crematorium.
[You incinerated a Dark corpse. Soul Crystals +1!][You incinerated a Dark corpse. Soul Crystals +1!][...][You incinerated a Dark corpse. Soul Crystals +5!]
The final output was 124 Soul Crystals.
Not a huge amount, but steady and reliable. Over time, this would become a solid long-term income source.
Equipment was also recovered.
A total of 433 units of Tier-1 Material Essence were obtained.
This greatly eased the severe material shortage caused by upgrading the core.
With that—
Today's work was mostly finished.
Kanzaki Ren began preparing for the next day's opening.
Considering Miracle City's reception capacity had already risen to 420 adventurers, he spent another 100 Soul Crystals to add 20 Secret Realm Crystals, bringing the total to 60, allowing more adventurers to enter and farm.
On the trading market—
Zombie Essence Souls were steadily selling.
After multiple price adjustments, Kanzaki Ren discovered that 17–18 Soul Crystals per soul was the optimal range.
In the end, after transaction fees, selling 50 Zombie Essence Souls netted him 894 Soul Crystals.
A massive income that greatly improved the territory's finances.
Kanzaki Ren took stock.
Remaining inventory:
One-star Zombies ×70
Two-star Zombies ×9
Three-star Zombies ×1
Not a lot, but not insignificant either. As he debated whether to sell more, the same lord who had previously sold him the Adventurer Inn blueprint contacted him again.
Lord 0340: "Friend, I've got another blueprint. Interested?"
Another blueprint?
Kanzaki Ren immediately perked up.
"What blueprint? Send it over!"
[Blueprint: Secret Realm Shop]Tier-1 BuildingConstruction Cost: 300 Soul Crystals, 100 Mental Energy, 100 Material Essence
Not bad at all!
This was essentially a territorial shop, and one of the most common yet useful buildings.
After some bargaining, Kanzaki Ren traded 60 ordinary Zombie Essence Souls for the Secret Realm Shop blueprint. He then built it immediately at the entrance of the Secret Realm Hall.
Current resources after construction:Mental Energy 1559, Soul Crystals 902, Material Essence 484
After this deal—
Only 10 ordinary Zombie Essence Souls remained.
Inventory was critically low!
If troops were urgently needed, there wouldn't even be enough souls to form a unit.
That wouldn't do.
The gates had to open immediately.
Let the adventurers come in and farm souls!
That said—
The trade itself was not a loss.
The Secret Realm Shop had two functions:
Increase population capacity by 20
Exchange Mental Energy for Secret Realm-produced items
Each Secret Realm Shopcould only bind to one Secret Realm.
Most non–Essence Soul drops farmed by adventurers would gradually unlock in the shop.
Exchange rules:
No-grade items: 1 Mental Energy → 10 units
Gray-grade consumables: 1–10 Mental Energy each
Gray-grade equipment: starting at 10 Mental Energy
Tier-1 shop daily exchange cap: 100 Mental Energy
At present, the Frenzy Secret Realm only produced daily necessities and snacks.
Alcohol, cigarettes, instant noodles, chocolate, and similar items.
Kanzaki Ren couldn't help suspecting that the Frenzy Secret Realm might not produce firearms, explosives, or vehicles at all—or more likely, those items had extremely low drop rates or materialized at grades above gray.
Drop rates were actually limited by adventurer tier.
Tier-1 adventurers could only farm Tier-1 items.
If a Secret Realm contained items above Tier-1 quality, Tier-1 adventurers would never drop them. Essence Souls were less restricted, but the probability of high-tier souls still dropped sharply for low-tier adventurers.
The greater the tier gap,
the lower the probability.
However—
Essence Soul drop probability was never truly zero.
That was why some low-tier adventurers still liked to gamble. Lower-tier resources still existed in high-tier realms, and hitting a high-tier Essence Soul was equivalent to instant life reversal.
Regardless, the Secret Realm Shop was extremely practical.
Over twenty items were already unlocked.
Food, drinks, and daily necessities were all available.
By investing 100 Mental Energy per day, Kanzaki Ren could obtain 1,000 units of goods. These could be used internally to improve living standards or sold at a stall outside the Secret Realm Hall to recover Contribution Points or earn Soul Crystals.
...
The next day.
Miracle City opened its gates.
Today's maximum reception capacity reached 440 adventurers.
Nancy Lia, unsurprisingly, saw that—
The dungeon filled to capacity almost instantly.
From her conversations the night before, she already knew that over a thousand adventurers were queuing every day just to enter Miracle City.
Unbelievable.
Truly unbelievable.
Miracle City's popularity now rivaled many territories that had already established a second city!
And how long had Miracle City even existed?
So far, it had only developed one small adventurer town!
Kanzaki Ren and Miracle City clearly had tremendous potential. If this growth trend continued, it might truly rise and challenge the Eternal Night Dragon King in the future.
Nancy Lia resolved to work harder as Miracle City's "network administrator," doing everything she could to support its prosperity.
With so many adventurers today,
there were naturally many unfamiliar faces.
Some of them stood out immediately.
For example—
An elderly man with snow-white hair and beard, his face deeply lined with wrinkles, radiating an unmistakable air of age.
It was none other than Hakutsuru Sennin, once the strongest adventurer in Blackstone Town.
At this moment, he stared forty-five degrees into the sky, on the verge of tears.
"I finally… squeezed my way in…"
The old man had never imagined that entering a newly founded dungeon could be this difficult.
Most adventurers in Blackstone Town were teenagers or young adults. Hakutsuru Sennin's appearance quickly drew attention, and his identity was recognized almost immediately.
"Wait… isn't that the old headmaster?!""The Adventurer Academy's headmaster came to Miracle City?!""Master Hakutsuru! Do you remember me? I was your student!""That's a legend! The strongest adventurer Blackstone Town's had in decades!""..."
A true heavyweight arrival.
The reaction was explosive.
People crowded around him excitedly.
Meanwhile, Nekomi Momo, White Fawn, and Shirasawa Yukari stepped out of the inn, enthusiastically discussing tactics they planned to test today.
"Still playing?"
"I've come to collect you all!"
Pig King ran over to deliver the news.
Their expressions instantly changed.
"We're doomed…"
Nekomi Momo wailed, "The headmaster personally came to drag us back!"
White Fawn added nervously, "We've skipped classes for days. If we get hauled back now, we're dead for sure!"
Everyone turned to look at Shirasawa Yukari.
She was the biggest problem of all.
Not only was she Hakutsuru Sennin's student, she was also his granddaughter.
She hadn't just skipped school and run to Miracle City—she had also terminated the highly valued Skycloud City contract!
And now the old man had personally come knocking on Miracle City's door.
This was serious trouble.