Chapter 41: Glittering Treasure

Zion continued working on Floor 3 long after the basic layout was finished.

The more traps he placed, the easier it became to see where the next one belonged.

Pressure plates disappeared between carved floor tiles. Narrow openings for darts blended into the reliefs covering the walls, while tripwires stretched across darker sections where the torchlight barely reached the ground.

In one hallway, Zion placed a flame jet directly after a visible pressure plate, then hid a second trigger several steps beyond it for anyone who became too confident after avoiding the first.

By the time he finished another section, there were very few stretches of the tomb where an adventurer could walk carelessly for long.

That was exactly what he wanted.

The traps weren’t packed so closely that every step became impossible, but there was always a reason to pay attention.

Someone who moved slowly and studied the walls could avoid most of them.

Someone running blindly through the halls would have a much worse experience.

Zion rotated the floor preview and inspected the result. It looked good. Dangerous, but good.

Still, something was missing.

The old adventure movies he remembered from his previous life had never been only about avoiding traps. People went into tombs because they expected something valuable at the end.

Gold. Artifacts. Jewels. Or even ancient weapons.

There was always some glittering object convincing otherwise reasonable people to crawl through collapsing ruins.

Zion looked across his carefully trapped hallways. "If I’m making a tomb, it should have treasure."

That created another opportunity. The Pendant of Lesser Sanctuary had already shown him what valuable loot could do.

One expensive item had drawn an absurd number of people into the dungeon once word spread through town. The pendant itself had cost him far more essence than he originally intended to spend on Floor 1 rewards, but the traffic afterward had more than made up for it.

And right now, traffic mattered. His protection period was still counting down.

Zion wanted Floor 4.

He wanted Floor 5 even more.

And somewhere behind both of those plans were the skeletons he had already delayed once. None of that would be cheap.

If another valuable reward brought an influx of adventurers before the grace period ended, the essence they generated could fund a large portion of the expansion.

Even the people who never came close to finding the treasure would still pay him simply by entering the dungeon.

Zion opened the reward section of the store. This time, he didn’t immediately search for the cheapest options. If Floor 3 was going to feel like a lost tomb, there should be rewards scattered throughout it.

Not every chest needed something incredible inside, but adventurers needed enough successes that they continued checking suspicious corners despite knowing those same corners might contain traps.

He started with small things.

Coins.

Basic potions.

Crafting materials.

A few pieces of common equipment.

Zion placed them throughout the floor wherever exploration naturally led away from the main route.

One chest went behind a trapped wall panel that could be bypassed if someone noticed the trigger. Another sat at the end of a narrow side passage with a pressure plate directly in front of it.

He even placed a small coin pouch beside a suspicious-looking skeleton carved into one wall, mostly because the placement amused him.

The rewards weren’t spectacular, but that was fine. They only needed to teach adventurers that wandering away from the safest path could be worthwhile. Once people learned that, greed would do the rest.

Zion looked over the growing floor and began imagining what would happen after the first few groups returned to town.

Someone would mention finding a potion inside a hidden chamber. Another party would claim they found silver behind a trapped passage. Eventually, people would start searching everything.

And searching everything inside a floor full of traps seemed like an excellent way to generate essence.

Still, common loot alone wouldn’t create the kind of attention the pendant had. He needed something people could talk about.

He searched the store again.

This time, his attention landed on the chest itself rather than what would go inside.

[Glittering Treasure Chest]

The preview appeared in front of him. Unlike the plain wooden chests he had been using, this one looked almost absurdly valuable on its own.

The body appeared to be made from polished gold, with decorative metalwork covering the corners and a large engraved lock set into the front. Even in the store preview, tiny points of light moved across its surface whenever the chest turned.

Zion rotated it once. Under normal circumstances, he might have thought it was excessive. Inside the tomb, however, it was perfect.

Torchlight would catch against the gold even from a distance.

If he hid most of the chest behind a wall or pillar, only a small flash would be visible to anyone passing at the right angle. Just enough for someone to stop.

He bought it. The chest appeared in his inventory, and he immediately started looking for somewhere to put it.

Not on the main path. That would be too easy.

He moved deeper into the floor, beyond the section where the rolling boulder eventually shattered against the stone barrier.

Several branching routes spread from there, including one narrow passage he hadn’t yet decided how to use.

Zion opened the terrain controls and extended it.

The hallway curved away from the main route before descending into a small chamber partially hidden behind two thick stone pillars. From the intersection outside, almost nothing could be seen inside.

Zion placed the Glittering Treasure Chest near the rear wall and adjusted its angle. A small portion of the lid became visible between the pillars.

He added a torch farther down the main hallway. The flame flickered. For several seconds, the chamber remained almost completely dark.

Then the light shifted across the opening. Gold flashed between the pillars.

"Oh, that’s good."

Anyone walking past too quickly could miss it completely. But someone paying attention might notice the brief sparkle and wonder what was hidden down the side passage.

And once they saw the chest itself, leaving it behind would become much harder. Of course, simply finding it shouldn’t mean getting it.

Zion opened the trap inventory again. He surrounded the chamber with several hazards, taking more care with their placement than he had almost anywhere else on the floor.

A pressure plate near the entrance activated dart mechanisms concealed inside the walls, while a second trigger closer to the chest released a section of the floor beneath whoever approached from the most obvious direction.

He considered adding a few actual snakes before remembering the restriction attached to the Shadow Panther.

’No additional monster units.’

"That’s annoying."

Fortunately, the hazard menu offered alternatives. Zion found a serpent-pit mechanism designed specifically for tomb and ruin environments.

The snakes were part of the trap itself rather than independent dungeon units, remaining sealed beneath the floor until the trigger opened the compartment.

That was apparently allowed.

Zion bought one. The preview showed dozens of dark bodies twisting over one another inside a narrow stone pit. He placed it beside the chest.

Now an adventurer who rushed directly toward the reward could potentially trigger the darts, drop part of the floor, or find a pit full of venomous snakes opening beside them.

He admired the room for several moments.

It was unfair, but not completely unfair. There were ways through.

A careful rogue could probably identify most of the triggers. A party with the right tools might disable them. Someone clever enough could possibly find another route around the chamber entirely.

That was important. Zion didn’t want the treasure to be impossible to obtain. He wanted it to feel earned.

The chamber was almost a small dungeon by itself. Closer to a side objective.

Adventurers didn’t need to enter it to clear Floor 3, but anyone brave enough to try would be rewarded if they succeeded.

Which brought Zion to the most important part.

What should actually go inside?

He opened the reward catalog. This time, he paid attention to the prices. The memory of spending 225 essence on Lilith’s bracelet had taught him at least that much.

Zion browsed several rare pieces of equipment and began comparing their costs against the amount of traffic he expected Floor 3 to generate.

The reward could be expensive if only a small percentage of parties ever reached it.

That was the important difference.

The Pendant of Lesser Sanctuary had been sitting inside the normal Floor 1 boss chest where anyone capable of defeating the Horned Ram could potentially receive it. This chest would be different.

Finding the room would require someone to notice it. Reaching the chest would require surviving the traps. Escaping with the reward would require getting through the rest of the floor afterward.

If twenty parties entered the dungeon because they heard about the treasure and only one actually claimed it, Zion would still earn essence from all twenty.

He started doing the math in his head.

Entry essence, floor clears, defeats, repeat attempts. The more people failed, the more likely they were to return with better equipment or a different plan. As long as the treasure generated more essence than it cost him, it wasn’t really an expense.

It was bait.

Zion liked that word considerably more. He looked over the golden chest again. If the reward inside was valuable enough, adventurers might start talking about Floor 3 the same way they had once talked about the pendant.

Maybe even more.

A dangerous lost tomb filled with traps, hidden treasure, and one particularly valuable chest somewhere inside sounded exactly like the kind of rumor people would spread.

And every person who came looking for it would feed his dungeon. Zion glanced toward the locked expansions for Floors 4 and 5. Then he thought about the graveyard terrain waiting in the store.

The skeletons were getting expensive.

If people wanted treasure badly enough to pay for them, Zion was more than willing to provide it.