Zion returned to the main store and opened the newly unlocked reward section.
[Treasure and Rewards]
His enthusiasm disappeared almost immediately.
The adventurers’ conversation returned to him.
‘If there’s really no loot, this dungeon is as good as dead.’
He still thought the logic was ridiculous.
They entered his dungeon voluntarily, attacked his monsters, defeated his floor boss, and then expected him to reward them for doing it.
Unfortunately, whether he liked the arrangement or not, he now understood why it existed.
Adventurers generated essence when they entered.
Their activity produced more, and clearing the first floor had given him enough to unlock another layer of protection between the entrance and his throne room.
If those same adventurers decided the dungeon was not worth returning to, that income disappeared with them.
Zion glanced at the counter.
[Founding Grace Remaining: 10 days, 2 hours, 41 minutes]
Just over ten days left.
That was all he had left to build enough defenses that the end of the protection period would not immediately become a death sentence.
Every additional floor required essence, which meant the people he had originally hoped would stay far away from his dungeon had suddenly become necessary.
The more adventurers who entered before the timer reached zero, the better.
That made the reward menu considerably harder to ignore.
He opened the basic treasure options.
[Wooden Reward Chest — 20 Essence]
[Boss Drop Chest — 35 Essence]
[Hidden Cache — 25 Essence]
[Minor Resource Chest — 15 Essence]
He focused on the Boss Drop Chest.
[Boss Drop Chest]
[Appears upon successful defeat of assigned Floor Boss.]
[Contents may be selected manually or generated from an established loot table.]
[Chest resets according to dungeon reward conditions.]
“That seems simple enough.”
He didn’t need treasure scattered across the entire pasture yet.
If the adventurers only expected something after defeating the boss, then one chest should be enough to convince them the floor was worth clearing.
Zion selected the barn and placed the chest near the rear wall, far enough from the Horned Ram’s usual position that it would not interfere with the fight.
[Boss Drop Chest assigned to Floor 1.]
The chest itself remained hidden.
According to the system, it would only appear after the Horned Ram had been defeated.
That meant a party couldn’t just open the chest and run off with the contents without defeating the boss first.
Now he needed something to put inside.
He opened the available reward catalog and was immediately confronted by a list far larger than he expected.
[Rusted Dagger — 3 Essence]
[Worn Leather Bracer — 4 Essence]
[Bundle of Iron Arrowheads — 5 Essence]
[Minor Healing Draught — 8 Essence]
[Common Short Sword — 18 Essence]
[Reinforced Leather Boots — 24 Essence]
Zion stared at the rusted dagger.Three essence was cheap.
Very cheap.
But he couldn’t imagine anyone being happy to find one after defeating the boss.
The party had been thrown across the pasture, bruised, exhausted, and forced to spend a significant amount of mana before finally winning.
If Mara opened the chest afterward and found a rusty knife worth less than one of his sheep, she might throw it back at the barn.
The worn bracer was not much better.
He kept scrolling.
There were weapons, armor pieces, potions, rings, charms, robes, spell focuses, and materials he did not even understand.
Some were inexpensive enough that he could replace them after repeated clears without feeling particularly offended.
While others cost more than entire sections of his dungeon.
Zion accidentally opened one.
[Robes of the Starbound Sage]
[Legendary Equipment]
[Cost: 14,800 Essence]
He closed it immediately, afraid that it would cost him something just to continue looking at it.
“Who is buying that?
That’s ridiculous.”
Zion returned to the part of the catalog that did not require sacrificing several future floors.
He only needed something good enough to feel like a proper reward without spending an absurd amount of essence.
That seemed like it should have been easy.
But several minutes later, he was still scrolling.
The problem was that everything inexpensive looked inexpensive.
And he felt that a boss reward should feel different from something an adventurer could buy cheaply from an ordinary merchant.
They had crossed the entire pasture to reach the barn, learned how to deal with Pack Mentality, and defeated a creature large enough to send their tank flying through the air.
Even Zion could admit that deserved something better than a pair of worn gloves.
While he still thought rewarding someone for defeating his boss was unfair, he had standards and wasn’t willing to hand out something pathetic.
Eventually, a small silver pendant caught his attention.
The necklace was simple but attractive.
A polished silver chain supported a round white stone set inside a thin metal frame, and faint golden light moved across its surface whenever he rotated the preview.
He opened the description.
[Pendant of Lesser Sanctuary]
[Quality: Low Enchanted]
[Effect: Provides minor resistance against holy and spiritual corruption.]
[Secondary Effect: Slightly reduces discomfort caused by weak cursed environments.]
[Summoning Cost: 175 Essence]
Zion’s non-existent eyes bulged at the price.
“One hundred and seventy-five…
for a necklace?”
He could summon more than forty sheep for that amount.
Even five Goblin Warriors would cost less, and those would at least carry swords and actively try to stop people from reaching him.
Still, the pendant looked valuable.
The silver was clean, the enchantment was visible, and the white stone gave off enough light that no one would mistake it for ordinary jewelry.
If someone opened the chest after defeating the Horned Ram, this actually looked like something that belonged inside.
Zion imagined Elias or Mara lifting it from the chest.
Surely that would be enough.
The adventurers wanted something that made the effort worthwhile, and this certainly looked like a reward.
He glanced at his essence balance again.
[Current Essence: 465]
The Boss Drop Chest had already taken thirty-five essence, along with a small placement fee required to bind it to the floor.
If he bought the pendant too, his balance would drop below three hundred while Floor 2 remained completely empty.
Zion hesitated before returning to some of the cheaper options.
The reinforced boots were acceptable.
There had also been a decent iron sword for twenty-eight essence.
A minor enchanted ring cost eighty-five, although its effect was so weak that Zion had needed to read the description twice to understand what it actually did.
Finally, his attention drifted back to the pendant.
The white stone shimmered softly inside the preview.
It looked like something that should appear after defeating a boss.
For reasons Zion did not entirely understand, that seemed important.
He checked the grace timer again and tried to think about the purchase the same way he thought about terrain or monsters.
If adventurers stopped coming, he stopped earning essence.
Without essence, he could not build more floors.
And without more floors, there would be very little standing between armed adventurers and a skull with one point of Vitality once the protection period ended.
Seeing it that way, the pendant was not really a gift.
It was an investment.
An extremely expensive investment.
Zion focused on the purchase button for a couple of seconds.
[Purchase Pendant of Lesser Sanctuary for 175 Essence?]
He imagined closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.
“Yes.”
[Purchase complete.]
[Floor 1 Boss Reward assigned.]
[Current Essence: 290]
Zion stared at the new balance.
Immediate regret settled in.
One hundred and seventy-five essence was gone just like that because he was too embarrassed to reward strangers with a rusty dagger.
“I still have a whole second floor to build too!” he sighed, wanting to punch himself.
The pasture remained peaceful around him.
Sheep grazed near the creek while the Horned Ram stood inside the barn, completely unaware that the next time someone defeated it, Zion would lose a reward worth more than summoning the boss three times over.
He looked toward the dungeon entrance.
“Someone better come back.”
<3