Sharlock's announcement, stacked on top of the 【OldMacDonald】 thread's momentum, instantly set off forum-wide discussion — like backing a whole truckload of boulders into a pond.
Players had read 【OldMacDonald】's caravan speculation thread just an hour ago, and now the official site rolled out an event preview — the imagination engine ignited instantly, and all kinds of new threads popped up across the forum:
【Some Thoughts on Whether OldMacDonald Is Actually a Dev Plant】
【BOLD PREDICTION: The CBT1 Event Will Open Up Cash Recharge!】
【Material Prices Are About to MOON! Anyone Who Already Enhanced Is Probably Crying】
【SHOCKING! Why the Devs Still Haven't Launched Open Beta — The Reason Will Warm Your Heart!】
Beyond all the hot-take spam and shitpost threads, there were plenty of genuinely practical guides too. Take the guide 【BurningChestHair】 posted — 【The Strategy for Killing a Single Subterranean Spider with a Minimum Five-Man Team】 — the first detailed combat write-up any beta tester had put on the forum. Then there was 【xX_ShadowBlade_Xx】, whom the other players called a pro, who mostly wrote data-and-mechanics guides — like the fastest route to grinding gold for a weapon-armor-shield set, or analyses of the current economy and prices, and so on. A dozen-plus threads between them, every one a hot post with over ten thousand replies.
Naturally, Sharlock had read all of these threads. He didn't fully buy the numbers in xX_ShadowBlade_Xx's data posts, but 【BurningChestHair】's guide was genuinely solid — extremely detailed on team coordination, and on which of the spider's weak points to hit, among other things.
Forum-browsing is one of those things that hooks you before you notice. Sharlock had only meant to post announcements and check how the other world's people rated his dungeon and what suggestions they had — but one thread led to another click and another click, and good grief, these otherworld players were all characters, posting the funniest stuff. He LOVED it here!
While Sharlock kept his head buried in the forums, the beta players outside had already finished building the dorms for Goldmane the blacksmith and Moros the trainer. Around the same time, the players' fourth Spider Nest expedition returned to the dungeon safe and sound. This group was even bigger than the third — basically everyone with the guts to face a spider went this time. Since most were experienced players now, they came back faster too, hauling double the spider loot of last time. Slightly more players got killed too, mind you.
Dragging their teammates' corpses and the spider corpses alike, grinning ear to ear, the players strolled back into the dungeon — clearly pretty pleased with their haul. Even though this wasn't Moros's first time watching these players chat and laugh in the face of death, every single viewing filled him with envy all over again. What warrior wouldn't WANT that kind of fearlessness! No matter how recklessly they played, zero fear!
To earn the same treatment as these goblins, Moros needed to step up his game and win His Lordship's approval!
Back with their loot, the players' first order of business was, naturally, the loot auction, so everyone who fought got a cut. These players had clearly all seen Sharlock's caravan announcement already — this time the subterranean spider loot went for noticeably higher prices than before. Obviously the players with means were stockpiling materials for the upcoming Frostlake City Caravan event.
And not just subterranean spiders — they'd brought back killer vines too. Clearly this fourth assault on the Spider Nest had broken through the entrance and pushed into the nest's interior; otherwise those killer vines would never have made it back. Killer vines were quite a bit easier than subterranean spiders — at least vines didn't have the spiders' mobility and attack power.
Once he'd healed the wounded and revived the dead, Sharlock glanced at their little internal auction and went back to dungeon business. The man was BUSY — still planning out phase one of his dungeon, assigning the players concrete quests and handing out rewards, and moonlighting as therapist to Goldmane and Moros on occasion. After all, living in the same dungeon as a hundred otherworld players with a workload that heavy, a little psychological pressure was only normal.
Most importantly, Sharlock still had forum duty — tracking the other world's public opinion in real time and soaking up their suggestions for the dungeon.
But Sharlock was overthinking it — he'd had it freer before, back when he could do as he pleased. Ever since he'd brought on the newbie trainer Moros, the players' strength had skyrocketed with each day of hell training. Especially after the third push succeeded, guides on countering subterranean spiders without casualties in small squads had spread far and wide. The players handled spider fights more and more cleanly, their combat polish climbing steadily. Above all, they had zero fear of death: agree on a battle plan, then execute it with full self-sacrifice — no fear of dying, no fear of injury. Warriors like that were nearly impossible to find in the surface world OR the Underworld! Probably only undead-type monsters could match that — but undead monsters couldn't hold a candle to these otherworld players in brains or coordination.
Not that Sharlock was hyping them up or anything. Just stating facts.
Deep down, Sharlock was pretty gratified. As a Dungeon Lord, his summoned otherworld servants weren't just cheap, hardworking, easy to keep, and low-maintenance — they were fearless unto death, endlessly curious, utterly unafraid, AND they could revive without limit after dying! Servants like these, he was probably the only one in the entire Underworld who had them. There were just, uh, a few notable problems that came along with the package.
For instance, Sharlock noticed his free time was vanishing!
When Sharlock was planning the dungeon's future development—
"Your Lordship! Help, need a rez!"
When Sharlock was mid-session with Goldmane the blacksmith, talking him through the melancholy in his heart over being harassed by players in the middle of the night—
"Your Lordship! Rez please!"
When Sharlock was browsing the forums—
"Your Lordship! Heal over here!"
When Sharlock was—
"Your Lordship! Heal!"
"Your Lordship! Rep exchange over here!"
"Your Lordship..."
Sharlock decided this could not go on. The more runs the players made to the Spider Nest, the more the injuries and deaths stacked up — and right now, the only one in the dungeon with healing and repair powers was Sharlock himself. All of that work landed square on his shoulders.
Originally the players hadn't hit the Spider Nest that often, and they'd mostly gone as one big blob — so Sharlock only had to come out and heal occasionally, once every day or two. But as the players' combat technique sharpened and their experience piled up, they started splitting off into small squads for Spider Nest runs. Small squads meant Sharlock was heading out to heal and revive players damn near every few hours.
At first Sharlock couldn't figure out why the players were ditching big-group runs for small squads. Logically, more people = more safety — hadn't their first successful push against the subterranean spiders leaned on sheer numbers to win? But after using magic to observe these otherworld players extensively — from team formation, to the hunt, to loot distribution, to disbanding — Sharlock finally understood why more and more of them were choosing small parties.
One: small squads let you dodge the whales. Whales use the other world's currency — something called "dollars" — to buy up coppers in bulk, then use coppers to buy materials. Ordinary players simply couldn't out-spend them for those resources. In a small party, normal players actually had a shot at buying materials — to stockpile for themselves, or flip at a markup.
Two: small-squad hunting hours were way more flexible. Some players could stay in full hunt mode all day; others could pull out after just a few hours. Departure times were freer too — no need to schedule around the majority like a big group did.
Three: loot distribution got more varied. Sharlock once watched a five-man hunting party that, after scoring loot, didn't split it via copper sales — they distributed it by throwing stone dice. They called it 【Party Loot Mode】, while distributing loot via auction was called 【Auction Loot Mode】. And when recruiting teammates in the dungeon's training plaza, they'd clearly state their squad's loot mode, planned headcount, recruitment requirements, and so on.
Incidentally, at some point the dungeon's training plaza had become these players' all-purpose social hub — chatting, trading, team-forming, the works. You'd constantly see players, after "waking (logging) up (in)," go grind some gold, rep, and coppers first thing, then come to the plaza to listen to other players' calls — checking for good deals, or a squad to join for a hunt, and so on. Even when "going to (logging) sleep (off)," they'd mostly stay near the plaza.
Precisely because the players had mastered the terrain and strategy at the Spider Nest's entrance, the small-squad approach kept gaining popularity. It was strictly an entrance-area playstyle, though — to break past the entrance and push deep into the nest's interior, you still needed numbers, or just a big old raid group to go exploring. The deeper you went, the more spiders there were, after all.
Sharlock's workload started climbing in a straight line, wearing him down to the bone — enough that he seriously started pondering a question: what if I just hired a wizard who can heal and patch up corpses?
And wouldn't you know it, the caravan was coming anyway. When it arrived, he'd ask the caravan leader whether they had any talent like that.
Just as that thought crossed Sharlock's mind, the dungeon core "Bru" spoke up:
"Your Lordship, a party is moving toward our dungeon. I believe it should be the caravan from Frostlake City."