Ding!
[Would you like to open the Golden Chest: (Yes/No)]
Adder nodded his head. "Yes."
Ding!
[You have gained the highest-ranked snake cluster.]
[You have gained 2 beginner forest terrain maps (complete).]
[You have gained a unique poison forest terrain map (complete).]
[You are given three packs of prey monsters.]
"What!" Adder stared at the reward with wide eyes.
He tapped on the highest-ranked snake cluster as more details popped up.
[Highest-rank cluster:
-> You have gained 10 groups of different types of normal snakes.
-> Each group has 10 individual snakes.]
He took a deep breath. Ten groups. It was double what he started with in his last life. 'With this many, I could start with island development, right?'
He already started to think about different ways he could develop them.
The next reward also doubled. It was better now; he would not have to spend more money on dungeon development.
As for the unique poison forest terrain map, it had to wait. It would be useless to use it for normal snakes.
The last reward was nothing special. Still, it would help him save money on food.
The little snake started dancing before him, flying up and down. "Wow, congratulations, Master! You got so many snakes."
Adder closed all the panels and looked at the empty dungeon. 'No time to waste.'
He said to the little snake, "Xarik, open the shop."
The little spirit blinked at him. "Master, you really know about the special shop."
Lost in its own world, the spirit nodded its head as if understanding something. "Ah, Master, you learned it from them."
He just raised his eyes but did not correct the little guy.
The spirit seemed relieved now as it flew on top of his shoulder. "Here, Master."
The next moment, a red shop panel popped before him.
Ding!
[Buy]
[Sell]
Two simple options popped up on the screen. After some thought, he tapped on sell and selected the rare poison forest terrain.
The little spirit frantically screamed at him. "Nooo, Master! What are you doing?"
Adder waved his hand. "Don't worry. I am just checking the price."
[Do you want to sell the complete terrain map for 5 gold?]
He clicked his tongue and dismissed the sell option. It would be diabolical to sell a complete map for only 5 gold, much less a rare terrain map.
It was barely 20 percent of the full price.
This selling option was still useless. He shook his head and tapped on the buy option.
[Prey Monster]
[Predator Monster]
[Traps]
[Terrain]
With just 10 silver, he started to look through small prey first.
His finger danced through all the available options in the shop. The biggest challenge about the dungeon was to create a self-sustaining environment. It needed to have a stable food chain for future snake monsters to thrive.
It was a super complicated process that he struggled with the most in the past.
In the past, it took him a long time and a lot of money to realize that the dungeon was more of a fortress. A fortress that had snake monsters as its soldiers.
It was not a place to build and develop species. That was the work of the Void Village.
The dungeon was only going to have the strongest creatures, and the environment had to be flexible enough to sustain a big swing in snake populations.
As for the Void Village, the time difference made it more like the normal villages present inside a kingdom.
The villages were all sorts of snakes that would live and go through their lives.
As a dungeon master, his entire task was to develop a Void Village in a way that promoted growth and then take out the fully developed power snakes to defend his dungeon.
The optimal design for him would be to have a Void Village produce sufficient power monsters such that after every dungeon defense, he could replace the dead monsters with new ones.
With that clarity in mind, he started buying.
[You bought 5x 'Slime']
[You bought 5x 'White Rabbits']
[You bought 5x 'Toothless Rats']
He focused on creatures with high reproduction capability that could thrive within the forest terrain.
He planned for both the first and second floors to have similar terrain.
After monsters, he focused on traps.
...
[You bought pit mechanisms]
[You bought arrow shoot mechanisms]
...
[All the traps are added to your inventory.]
He looked at the last silver and decided to save it for now. These traps should be sufficient for the start.
The little spirit chimed from the side. "Master, you forgot to buy any predators."
Adder shook his head. "Don't worry about them."
For the dungeon, he wanted to develop it as a progressive reproduction ground for prey monsters. More like a food stock for future snakes.
Now, with all the components with him, he calmly said, "Activate the control panel."
Another screen popped before him.
This time, there were a lot of options listed there. Also, a 3D diagram of the entire dungeon showed up next to it.
Everything was blank in the dungeon for now.
He turned to the spirit. "Xarik, help me create the details of the dungeon's first floor."
The spirit reminded him, "Master, before you start, let me tell you. You can only take monsters from the Void Village to the dungeon, not vice versa."
"Yup, I know it all," Adder nodded, as this was the biggest thing that stumped him many times in his past life.
Focusing back on the map, he said, "Come on, let's start."
The spirit nodded back at him. "Okay, Master," and it flew through the floor.
Not long after, he saw the spirit on the 3D diagram on the first floor.
He looked at his inventory, and then his finger slashed across the panel.
Ding!
[Inputting the 'Forest' Terrain on the 1st floor.]
[Loading the data.]
[Processing...]
[Finished.]
In the 3D diagram, what originally looked like a blank back hall changed to a green landscape filled with small trees, bushes, and grass.
Even the ceiling of the floor transformed into a bright sky, with an artificial sun lighting the entire floor.
Golden sunlight peeked through a layer of clouds and fell on the green leaves all over the forest.
The little spirit already started bouncing between the trees. He reminded the little guy, "Hey, focus on the work."