Chương 58: Chapter 57: Version 0.3

3 After seeing Cyrus and the others off, Owen spent a while letting his mind wander before switching the light screen back to Rayne's party. They had just returned to the ruined church. Barton sat on the stone steps in front of the church with a calm expression, his greatshield resting beside him. It seemed that both Barton and his greatshield had been safely returned to the church through Trial Return, with the shield neither lost nor damaged inside the almshouse. That came as a relief to Owen.

If Barton had lost the greatshield, Rayne's party would have suffered a significant drop in defensive strength. Rayne and the others did not stay for long this time. After confirming that Barton was in good condition and briefly reporting what had happened during the mission to Bishop Lorian and Owen's traveling-merchant persona, they prepared to leave the dungeon. Owen watched them leave in disappointment. Sure enough, he really would not get to hear the story of White Wolf and his companions this time.

"Damn it! Isn't there any way for me to leave the dungeon with Rayne and the others?" Owen rolled back and forth across the stone platform in frustration. Just then, an idea surfaced in his mind, causing his entire core to light up.

"Wait... What would happen if I let a dungeon resident leave the dungeon? Would I still be able to control them? Would the light screen still let me see what was happening around them?" Owen's voice was filled with curiosity, along with a trace of anticipation he could barely conceal. If it really worked, he might be able to see the outside world through a dungeon resident's eyes.

Not only would that help make up for his lack of information, but it might even allow his traveling-merchant persona to visit other towns for real. However, his excitement lasted for less than two seconds. The moment he remembered that the middle-aged man with long dark-gray hair tied back was still stationed outside the dungeon entrance, Owen calmed down. Although that man seemed to have acknowledged his goodwill, suddenly sending out a resident under the dungeon's control could easily cause a misunderstanding.

This was especially true if Owen used his traveling-merchant persona. If a merchant who could move freely inside the dungeon suddenly strode through the entrance portal, anyone would find it suspicious.

"Hmm... I should probably wait until he leaves before trying that experiment." Owen swayed from side to side in frustration. When the time was right, perhaps he could start by generating an inconspicuous little animal and see whether he could still sense its presence after it left the dungeon.

"This is so annoying. I've never wanted to become stronger this badly before. If I were powerful enough, I wouldn't have to worry about provoking those people outside every time I wanted to try something new!" Some time later, the adventuring parties still inside the dungeon began leaving one after another. Before long, it was nearly ten at night. By then, Guild staff had begun dispersing the adventurers gathered around the perimeter, telling them not to remain near the dungeon entrance.

Nothing like this had ever happened before.

"Did that guy arrange this?" Owen thought about it for a moment. However, since the situation could only benefit him, he did not dwell on it.

"Now I can modify the dungeon in peace without worrying about someone suddenly barging in halfway through construction." After confirming that no challengers remained inside the dungeon, Owen opened the system interface and checked his current Soul Energy. [Current Soul Energy: 24, 521] It was not a large amount. Compared with the 120, 000 points required to advance his core to the next tier, it was almost pitifully small.

However, if he only used it to carry out a major expansion of Sinner's Canyon, it should be more than enough. The canyon area was currently far too narrow, severely limiting the number of adventurers it could accommodate. Even if the Guild really did direct more low-rank adventurers here, they would still have to line up outside the entrance and wait because they could not all enter the dungeon at the same time. That would undoubtedly place a serious limit on how quickly Owen could acquire Soul Energy.

Therefore, the best solution for now was to expand Sinner's Canyon as quickly as possible, allowing more adventurers to explore it at the same time. However, once Owen truly began considering how the expansion should work, he once again found himself paralyzed by indecision. Should he extend the original canyon route or open entirely new branches? And how could he prevent different parties from interfering with one another, or even stealing each other's monsters and loot?

Just thinking about it for a moment made Owen feel as though his core was about to crack.

"I wonder if the dungeon has anything like instanced areas?" Owen quickly thought of the most convenient solution. If he could create several identical but independent copies of the same area, then send entering adventurers into them separately, different parties would not have to crowd into the same canyon or compete for monsters and loot. That way, even if the physical size of Sinner's Canyon remained unchanged, it could still accommodate large numbers of adventurers at once.

Unfortunately, Owen went through every system function currently available to him several times but still found no option for creating instanced areas.

"Does the function not exist at all, or is my core tier too low for me to access it yet?" Owen could not determine the answer. Either way, it was not something he could rely on right now. In the end, he had no choice but to begin by redesigning the map. At present, adventurers who wanted to open the Bronze Gate had to defeat three bosses and collect three different Prisoner's Tokens. Within the original Sinner's Canyon, the requirement had been troublesome but still reasonable.

However, if he greatly expanded the entire canyon while continuing to require every party to traverse every area and defeat three bosses scattered across separate locations, that would be asking far too much. As for defeating Cassandre and proceeding directly into the area beyond him, that was currently even less possible. Given the adventurers' current strength, no one could defeat Cassandre.

Besides, Owen had deliberately stationed him at the Bronze Gate as a gatekeeper, precisely to stop adventurers from pushing deeper into the dungeon unchecked. Therefore, the safest method was still to have adventurers complete specific challenges to qualify to open the Bronze Gate. The only question was how the clear conditions should be adjusted after the expansion.

"Ugh, this is such a pain... But if I don't hurry, what happens if the real threat arrives before I'm ready?" You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Owen's voice gradually grew subdued. However, his gloom lasted only a short while before he rallied again, and the light across his core brightened once more.

"So what if it's a little troublesome? I already accepted being transported into another world and turned into a broken rock. What does a little extra work matter compared with that?" Owen began redesigning the entire area. First, the original canyon, which had essentially forced adventurers to travel in only one direction, would definitely need to be rebuilt.

In addition to carving out more branches to the left and right, he also considered adding pronounced changes in elevation and even excavating underground passages in certain areas to create the impression of multiple floors. This place was already a canyon prison. Adding more signs of deliberate excavation, along with cells and other prison facilities, would only make the entire area's theme feel more cohesive.

As for the clear conditions, Owen planned to place the three bosses at the ends of three major branches and adjust all three to Low Bronze-level strength. The Chainbound and Bonecrusher, the two weaker bosses, would both need to be upgraded and rebalanced. Otherwise, adventurers choosing between routes would always select whichever boss was easiest to defeat.

In the future, adventurers would only need to defeat any one of the three bosses and obtain the Prisoner's Token it carried to satisfy half of the clear conditions.

"Hehe, now they won't have to challenge every single boss!" Owen swayed in satisfaction. Different parties could choose which branch they wanted to explore. This would not only spread adventurers across the different routes, but also give them a reason to explore the other paths the next time they entered the dungeon. However, even if all three bosses were adjusted to Low Bronze-level strength, the Whisperer's complete set of abilities still gave it far greater combat strength than the other two.

"How am I supposed to balance this?" Owen swayed anxiously across the stone platform. After a while, his entire core floated into the air as he repeatedly switched between images on the light screen, as though reviewing the three bosses' combat patterns a few more times would somehow give him new inspiration. Even after quite some time, however, he still could not think of a satisfying solution. In the end, he could only sigh helplessly and set the problem aside for now.

There were still many parts of the map that needed work. The amount of time he could spend on construction each night was limited, so he could not afford to use all of it balancing the three bosses. Owen returned his attention to Sinner's Canyon and continued widening the paths, carving out new branches, and adding more artificial structures to the steep rock walls. After working for quite some time, he finally could not hold back and let out an aggrieved wail.

"How much longer will it be before I can modify the dungeon while adventurers are exploring it? At this rate, won't I have to work overtime every single night?" After another long stretch of work, the new canyon terrain gradually took shape. Originally, only one path led from the starting chamber directly into a narrow slot canyon. Now, however, two new passages branched off to the left and right beyond the chamber, dividing Sinner's Canyon into three major routes.

The central route leading toward the Bronze Gate had not been altered much, although Owen added more forks and narrow passages along the way. Beside one section of the rock wall lay a collapsed iron-barred gate. Beyond it, a staircase descended into the depths beneath the canyon, where the Whisperer waited inside a circular underground prison. The Chainbound and Bonecrusher were stationed at the ends of the new left and right routes respectively.

Adventurers who followed either direction deeper into the canyon would eventually reach a circular prison compound enclosed by natural rock walls and artificial structures. After completing these changes, Owen inspected the map again and finally bobbed in satisfaction. The overall structure was almost complete. Once he added the remaining prison facilities, monster placements, and a few decorations along the routes, the area would be ready for use. Owen looked down to check the cost of the construction.

[Soul Energy Consumed: 4, 452] [Remaining Soul Energy: 20, 069] Next, it was time to strengthen the other two bosses. Since the Chainbound and Bonecrusher had originally possessed different levels of strength, the cost of raising them to a similar standard also differed. Upgrading the Chainbound cost a total of 1, 100 Soul Energy, while upgrading Bonecrusher cost 800.

[Soul Energy Consumed: 1, 900] [Remaining Soul Energy: 18, 169] After the adjustments, the two bosses had reached roughly comparable levels of overall strength. However, adventurers would need to adopt completely different approaches when fighting them. Bonecrusher remained a pure strength-based boss. Aside from its increased physical power, its overall fighting style had not changed much. It would continue overwhelming adventurers head-on with heavy, ferocious attacks.

The Chainbound, meanwhile, had been redesigned into a control-focused boss. The chains it wielded had become far more flexible. Not only could they wrap around an adventurer's limbs and restrict their movement, but after successfully binding a target, the Chainbound could deliberately sever that length of chain. The broken chain would remain wrapped around the adventurer, while a new length of chain would extend from the shackles in the Chainbound's hands.

This allowed it to immediately turn and attack someone else instead of restricting its own movements after controlling a single adventurer. However, it could only maintain two detached chains at the same time. Adventurers could also break free through sheer strength or have their companions destroy the chains wrapped around them, so being caught did not mean they would be left completely helpless. As for the Whisperer, Owen had no intention of strengthening it further for now.

It was already extremely difficult for ordinary adventurers to defeat. If he raised its strength any higher, hardly anyone would be willing to choose that route. At that moment, Owen realized how he could design the second clear condition. After defeating any one of the bosses and obtaining its Prisoner's Token, adventurers would also need to collect another type of token dropped by regular and elite monsters before they truly qualified to open the Bronze Gate.

Furthermore, the required number of these secondary tokens would vary depending on which Prisoner's Token the adventurers had obtained. The Whisperer was the most difficult boss to defeat, so adventurers who overcame it would only need to collect a small number of additional tokens. Since the Chainbound and Bonecrusher were easier, anyone choosing those routes would need to spend more time defeating monsters along the way.

This way, even if the three bosses could not be made perfectly equal in strength, the overall difficulty and completion time of the three routes could still remain relatively close.

"I'm a genius!" Owen's delighted laughter immediately echoed throughout the Core Chamber. Now, aside from carefully adjusting the number of tokens required for the second clear condition, the reconstruction of Sinner's Canyon was nearly complete. Come to think of it, changing the map like this did not seem to cost all that much Soul Energy! As for the ordinary monsters already inhabiting the canyon, Owen had no intention of strengthening them any further.

The Desiccated Corpses were meant to give rookie adventurers something to train against. Raising their strength would only cause them to lose their original purpose. However, Owen planned to add several new types of elite monsters to make combat throughout Sinner's Canyon more varied. After considering the matter for a while, he used the two sub-bosses from the wooden encampment as templates and designed two types of elite monsters with Mid Black Iron-level strength.

The first was the [Elite Jailer], armed with a longsword and shield. Their combat ability surpassed that of ordinary monsters with Mid Black Iron-level strength and already approached High Black Iron-level strength, but they were not so powerful that rookie adventurers entering the dungeon for the first time would feel completely hopeless. Elite Jailers would be relatively rare, scattered throughout the branches and key passages along the three main routes.

They specialized in blocking attacks with their shields, then working alongside the surrounding Desiccated Corpses to pin adventurers down from the front. The other type was the [Dual-Blade Executioner], armed with two blades. They were also elite monsters with Mid Black Iron-level strength. However, unlike the Elite Jailers, they would not confront adventurers head-on.

Instead, they would hide in the shadows near passages and prison cells, waiting until adventurers lowered their guard before launching a sudden attack. Only one Dual-Blade Executioner would be assigned to each main route, but Owen suspected they would soon become a nightmare for many adventurers. Of course, to avoid overwhelming genuine rookie parties, the Dual-Blade Executioners would only actively attack parties with at least three Black Iron-rank members.

Weaker challengers could pass directly by their hiding places without triggering the ambush. Creating twelve [Elite Jailers] and three [Dual-Blade Executioners] cost a total of 2, 280 Soul Energy. The seventy-two additional Desiccated Corpses placed throughout the three main routes cost another 5, 400.

[Soul Energy Consumed: 7, 680] [Remaining Soul Energy: 10, 489] The moment Owen saw the remaining total on the light screen, he collapsed onto the stone platform and began twitching as though mortally wounded, letting out a faint, dying groan.

"Ah... Just as I thought, terrain is always the cheapest part. The monsters are what really cost a fortune!" Then he remembered that he would still need to prepare loot for the adventurers in the future, and a string of unintelligible shrieks immediately echoed throughout the Core Chamber.

"B-But once the reconstruction is complete, Sinner's Canyon should be able to accommodate three adventuring parties at the same time. If more people come in, I'll gain more Soul Energy too. That should count as a good thing, right?" Owen barely managed to comfort himself, but he still let out a couple of bitter chuckles. He looked again at the remaining 10, 489 Soul Energy and ultimately abandoned the idea of continuing construction.

That energy needed to be reserved for monster respawns, Trial Return, and loot generation. He could not afford to spend all of it at once.

"Then I'll raise Sinner's Canyon's Entry Limit to eighteen!" Based on the usual size of an adventuring party, eighteen people should be enough for three parties to explore at the same time. After completing the final setting, Owen casually switched the light screen to the area outside the dungeon entrance, only to find several adventurers in the previously quiet camp already getting up and moving around. A faint white glow had also appeared along the distant horizon.

Only then did Owen realize that he had somehow worked all the way until dawn without noticing.

"Just as I thought, once you really get absorbed in your work, you completely lose track of time." As he watched the adventurers in the camp gradually awaken and eagerly prepare to enter the dungeon, Owen began spinning excitedly in place.

"Hehe! Blackstone Dungeon Version 0. 3 is officially live!"

"I can't wait to see how you react!"