Bang!

 

‘Finally! I'm done.’ Hank said as the last piece of the stalactite that was attached to the roof of the underground cave fell to the ground.

 

For seven long, boring hours, he did nothing more than clean and cut the stalagmites and stalactites that littered the cave. It was a very long and arduous process.

 

If he wanted, he could have cut the stalagmites and stalactites in the cave all at once, but the amount of mana required to carry out such a task was simply too astronomical.

 

One had to understand, the underground cave was extremely big and was littered with stalagmites and stalactites, from the ground up, some small while others as big and thick as a tree trunk.

 

To perform such a task, he would need to almost empty his mana storage unit and send large streams of mana waves throughout the whole cave to simultaneously cut them.

 

According to his estimation, carrying such a large-scale operation would have cost at least a whopping 1000 mana units.

 

Even though he could still absorb the mana back into his core, he still would have lost about 10% of it in the process.

 

However, by cutting the stalagmites and stalactites one or two at a time, he only spent 300 mana units.

 

Aside from that, he had also discovered some new skills he never knew he had. Apparently, he could turn stones into sands and back again without any trouble.

 

Condensing the stone was slightly more intensive than turning stones into sands. While turning stone into sand was free, turning sand into stone was very costly.

 

For every stone, it would need at least 0.50 mana unit to keep them together. The mana was like glue or cement that allowed the sand to harden and stick together to form the stone.

 

[Congratulations! Due to your excellent job in cleaning your domain, you have been given a reward!]

[Your mana regeneration has increased from 1 mana unit every hour to 1 mana unit every 30 minutes]

 

‘Not bad.’ Said Hank with a surprised tone after hearing the system's sudden notification. He wasn’t expecting this at all.

 

He always wanted to do something about his mana regeneration. However, he didn't know how to. His mana regeneration was simply too slow. It was like trying to fill a swimming pool with a watering can, but now it’s a little better.

 

Name: Hentai Master

Species: Dungeon Core

 

Level: 10 (1450/2000)

 

System Shop Level: 2

 

[Requirements met to advance: Reach level 20]

 

Floors: 1

 

Mana: 1450/1500 (Regeneration 1 unit/30 min)

 

Available monsters: N/A

 

Available traps: N/A

 

Available loot: N/A

 

Available skills: Novice Planner, Appraisal, Mana absorption, Earth Manipulation, Creation, Absorb matter, Alter environment, Digging, Enhancement, Craftsmanship.

 

Inventory: Sex Doll, Purple Ruby(89), Blue Sapphire(50), Spinel(40), Purple Grass(240), Blue Grass(140), Sand(100 Tons)

 

‘A lost of 50 mana units, not bad.’ Said Hank as he was looking at his remaining mana units after retracting the mana back into his core.

 

Unlike before when he was using mana absorption to absorb the mana in the surrounding areas, it only took him a second to absorb all his remaining 250 mana units back into his core.

 

‘It was worth it! The underground cave looks completely different now.‘ He said as he was admiring the result of his hard work.

 

Indeed, the creepy underground cave was the complete opposite of its previous self. Not only all the stalactites and stalagmites that littered the cave were completely gone, but the ceiling and walls of the cave were also well polished and smooth as a baby’s butt.

 

The cave looked bigger and larger than it was before. The ceiling looked higher than it previously was and the ground was carved smooth and evenly. The entire area now looked like a smooth giant man-made cave.

 

‘I also can’t believe I was able to store all the sands within my inventory.’ He added as he was looking at the 100 tons of sands icon in his inventory.

 

It seemed like the more stuff he put in his inventory the bigger it became. He didn’t need to spend mana to enlarge it.

 

Putting and retrieving stuff from the inventory was quite easy and surprisingly
simple. It came with a list that looked like
something along the lines of a video game's inventory system.

 

It displayed all the items he had inside of it; it didn't look like forgetting about the contents of my inventory was going to be much of an issue. All he needed to do to retrieve a particular item was focus on
it or think of retrieving that specific item and it would come out. It was incredibly convenient.

 

‘Well, now that I am done cleaning the cave, it’s time to start building the maze.’ Hank inwardly thought as he was looking around.

 

He already had the layout of the maze in mind. It was a well-known fact that a good and powerful maze was one that has a single solution rather than multiple solutions.

 

Multiple solutions made it easier to stumble upon the goal while a single solution made it harder as there was only one right path. With a single solution, it meant that one could have many passage loops in other areas of the maze.

 

Nonetheless, despite the advantages of creating a maze with a single solution, Hank didn’t plan on creating one or one with multiple solutions. To him, the best maze was the one with no solutions at all.

 

Fuck that! This was real life. He was creating a maze to protect his core, his very life not to have fun. This was not a game so why in the hell would he create a path that would lead people straight to his core and destroy him?

 

If an invader or adventurer wanted to reach his core room then he would need to destroy the maze’s pathway because there’s no way he would create a pathway that would lead to his core.

 

With renewed purpose, Hank directed a stream of mana into the exit tunnel and tried to drill into it wall of dirt that blocked it. However, he was blocked by a mysterious force and was unable to drill a hole into it.

 

“Good, now I don’t have to worry about accidentally drilling a hole into the cave that would lead to the outside world.” He said to himself. It seems like this mysterious power was preventing him from expanding into the outside world. 

 

Knowing that he didn't have to to worry about that, he then shifted the stream of mana to the left side of the exit tunnel. Just like previously, he willed the dirt and rocks to crumble as he started to create the twists and turns of the maze.

 

He kept an image of a 15ft by 15ft square tunnel in his head. He didn’t want to make to maze’s tunnel too big or too small. As such, he judged that a 15ft by 15ft square tunnel was a reasonable size.

 

And, just as he pictured it, the cave wall became to crumble into sand which fell to the ground as the streams of mana turned into

 

Inches by inches, foot by foot, his mental image of the tunnel was becoming a reality. After having carved the tunnel for a good 50 feet, He had used all the 25 mana units he had used to drill into the wall.

 

‘I need to change my plan, there’s no way I can complete that huge task by myself in time. I need help. I think it’s time for me to buy some monsters and tools.’

 

Not only that but with his amount of mana and his mana regeneration, there’s no way he could complete that task by himself without suffering from mana deficiency every day. He cost him 25 mana units just to dig a 50 feet tunnel.

 

Compare to when he was cleaning the underground cave, it was more cost-effective for him to buy monsters and tools to complete the job rather than completing it by himself.