The maze was built starting with the mother skeleton replenishing its magic.

"Wife?"

"It's probably the diary left behind by an adventurer who died in the labyrinth," Ethan said as he turned to the back of the page.

Based on the contents, it can be roughly deduced that the owner of the diary should be the Imperial wanted criminal who was killed by the skeleton in the maze, as mentioned by Martin.

But why would this skeleton give them the diary?

Ethan was puzzled until he turned to the last entry in his diary.

"Clang—"

The torch fell to the ground, startling Glenn, who was standing guard nearby.

Glenn quickly picked up the torch, and in the firelight, he noticed that Ethan's face had turned somewhat pale, and his eyes were trembling.

"Mr. Ethan?"

"Berazha's witch has appeared in Byrondin..." Ethan muttered.

Then, he suddenly looked up at the skeleton that had handed him the diary, but it had vanished.

Glenn didn't understand what the so-called "witch" meant, but he heard "Byrondin" from Ethan and saw his shocked expression.

The situation immediately became serious.

"Mr. Ethan, what's wrong?"

"I have to get this message to Byrondin's Frey Church." Ethan handed over the diary and explained the dangers, "Otherwise, when the Blood Curse erupts en masse, Byrondin will be the next Somlius."

"Sombrius?" Glenn paused for a moment, then gasped. "The city of Sombrius, the so-called 'Unbreakable Fortress of the West,' that was destroyed overnight!"

"That's right."

Ethan nodded heavily in response.

"Two years ago, the blood curse that turned people into monstrous beasts broke out collectively in the city of Somlius, ultimately causing that impregnable fortress to fall overnight."

"What exactly is the Blood Curse?"

"It's the curse of the demon god Belzaha." Ethan took a deep breath. "There's no time to lose. I'll head to the Frey Church in Byronden right now."

Others might not understand, but Ethan, who had once been a follower of Freya, naturally knew the dangers of the Blood Curse.

The conflict between the Church of Frey and the witches has lasted for an entire era.

"I'll go with you, Mr. Ethan," Glenn said, worried about Anna's safety.

"Let the professionals handle this." Ethan tried to pat Glenn on the shoulder but couldn't reach him, so he patted his upper arm instead. "You stay in Ross Town and figure out how to investigate this maze."

The labyrinth is now full of strangeness, and the two of them alone probably won't be able to escape unscathed from the lord's room at the deepest part.

Martin, old friend, you can rest in this maze for now.

I'll take you back to your hometown after this is all over.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Angelica finally breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the adventurer leave with the diary.

What are you doing here?

"what!"

Angelica turned around in a panic, waving her hands frantically at Lance, "N-nothing!"

"I saw it all on the security cameras," Lance said, hands on his hips. "You let the adventurer take the diary out?"

monitor?

Ah, Mr. Lance, have you seen everything...?

She lowered her head, fidgeting with her fingers, looking embarrassed that her lie had been exposed.

"That person is a follower of Frey, which is why I thought of having him take the news of the witch out of the labyrinth."

"Your church accepts dwarves?" Lance asked in surprise.

"Dwarves?" Angelica tilted her head. "No, dwarves don't worship the goddess Frey."

"Never mind, it's not important."

Lance clutched his head; he already had enough headaches to deal with.

"Angelica, find a few skeletons to repair the front door. I need to think about the next steps."

"oh."

After saying that, Lance's figure disappeared into the maze and appeared in the resurrection space the next second.

This is an extra ability of being the master of the labyrinth; as long as Lance is not killed, he can freely traverse the labyrinth and the resurrection space.

If defeated, you will need to serve 7 days in the resurrection space, which corresponds to the lord's respawn time.

Moreover, Lance can now open the black door to the resurrection space.

After exiting, there was a relatively open cave. Next to Lance's room were rooms for the zombies, maze bats, and even Bruce to wait for their resurrection.

It was probably to make it easier for the maze's owner to manage different kinds of monsters.

At the end of the cave stood an even larger black iron door. Lance tried to push it open, and the door displayed the message "Level 30 or below".

Why don't the monsters in the maze die? What exactly is the resurrection space? And what's behind the door?

Clearly, these secrets are hidden behind this door.

This made Lance, who was already struggling with how to modify the maze, even more troubled.

There is so much to do.

Fortunately, there was no external pressure, and apart from the time cost, the other expenses were negligible, so I could take my time to think it over.

So I sat down cross-legged and started going through the next steps of my plan.

1. Strength —

The most important thing is to level up as soon as possible to obtain new forms, professions, and talents.

Having strong personal capabilities is a prerequisite for any plan.

Experience points, skills, and talents all come from defeating new enemies or adventurers.

In other words, the current maze can no longer meet Lance's upgrade needs, and he must go to a new maze.

2. Employees

The maze is currently in dire need of manpower, both as labor and combat troops.

There are essentially two ways to acquire employees: create them yourself or recruit them.

The advantages and disadvantages of creating your own monsters are quite obvious; although you can DIY powerful monsters.

Furthermore, Lance discovered that skills could not only be assigned to new employees, but also to existing employees who were brought back to the factory for retraining.

However, both methods are costly and time-consuming, and the types of employees can only be those currently available in the maze.

That is, skeletons, zombies, and cameras.

As for the recruitment, it was Lance's idea, inspired by Boneka—this guy was definitely not a native monster of the labyrinth, but more like an outsider.

If that's the case, then non-employees of this maze should also be able to work here.

Lance needs to experiment in the new maze to find out the specifics.

3. Equipment

Equipment refers to magic crystals and weapons.

The former was to make Angelica's skills useful, while the latter was to make his own skills useful.

Lance now possesses a set of hunter skills, but he is troubled by not having a bow to shoot.

If the boss doesn't know how to shoot a bow, then the employees certainly don't.

Monsters spawn with their own equipment; skeletons will have a basic longsword, while zombies may only have their bare hands.

Therefore, Lance needs equipment, whether he tries to make it himself or steal it from others, as this can greatly enhance his combat power and expand his combat methods.

As for magic crystals, according to Angelica, using magic crystals as a medium to transmit magic is much faster than using them empty-handed.

In theory, Lance can open portals to any dungeon whose name he can name; the cost of opening a portal is calculated based on the distance between the two dungeons.

Furthermore, maintaining the portal consumes mana every second.

With Lance's current magical power, he can at most conquer the maze near his home.

Therefore, whether it's opening portals or producing employees, Lance has to rely on Angelica's magic before his level increases.

This made magic crystals a strategic necessity.

4. Maze Construction —

Imagine you were an adventurer, what would motivate you to conquer the dungeon?

Earn money to support your family, gather resources, level up, or challenge powerful monsters.

This is currently a maze with no clear boundaries.

Without fame, resources, or monsters—it cannot satisfy the needs of any adventurer.

This resulted in no adventurers being willing to explore the Kru Labyrinth, and the lack of adventurers indirectly reduced Lance's profits.

He needs to renovate the maze properly.

The challenge should be presented to adventurers, but not too difficult; the rewards should be plentiful, but not excessive.

Based on the four key points above, Lance's next plan is very clear—to conquer the new dungeon.

They snatch employees and resources, then go home and build their own maze.

......

When Lance returned to the labyrinth, Angelica was directing two small skeletons to fill the gap in the gate.

No wonder he's the company's logistics manager.

Angelica.

"Ah! When did you arrive? You startled me!"

Angelica was indeed startled and her head briefly flew up.

"Do you know which dungeons are rich in magic crystals?" Lance asked, then added, "We need to go and conquer a new dungeon."

"Magic Crystals?" Angelica thought for a moment. "The 'Labyrinth of Kings' in the center of the capital, and the 'Starfall Labyrinth' near Byronding, they all have them."

Which one is closer to us?

"It should be the Starfall Maze. We seem to be in the southern part of the continent."

Lance nodded and began to set the skill's destination in his mind.

[Starfall Maze Level 1 Teleportation Portal: Opening the portal consumes 100 mana points, and it maintains 100 mana points per second thereafter]

With Lance's current magic power, he can probably maintain it for 7 seconds. Considering that he needs to maintain at least half of his mana to enter the new dungeon, let's calculate it as maintaining it for 3 seconds.

It takes three seconds to send too many soldiers.

"Didn't Mr. Lance say that monsters can't leave the labyrinth?" Angelica asked curiously.

"But it didn't say you can't go to other mazes."

As he spoke, Lance waved his right hand.

The magic in the air hummed, and a blue light curtain with unstable arcs of electricity flickering at its edges tore the space apart.

On the other side of the light screen, a completely different rock wall scene, filled with starlight, can be vaguely seen.

Let me see what this maze looks like.

屮!

The greenery is so beautiful!