Chapter 42: The Shadow Panther (Part 1)

By the time Zion finished setting the last of the reward chests, his remaining essence sat at 5,612.

He stared at the number for a while.

It was still a lot. More than he had ever expected to have when he first woke up on the throne with barely enough essence to buy sheep and fences.

The constant flow of adventurers had changed that quickly. Between entry essence, Floor 1 clears, failed attempts on Floor 2, and the occasional party reaching the basilisk, the dungeon had been earning almost constantly.

Floor 3 had also been expensive.

The terrain alone had taken a noticeable chunk out of his balance. Then there were the traps, the torch placements, the hidden chambers, the Glittering Treasure Chest, the Shadow Panther contract, and all the smaller purchases he kept making whenever another idea occurred to him.

Not to mention the bracelet.

Zion ignored that part.

Floor 4 would cost another two thousand essence to unlock, and Floor 5 would cost four thousand after that. Six thousand total.

He was close.

Close enough that the remaining few hundred essence should have felt insignificant compared to everything he had already earned, but that was only the cost of opening the floors. He would still need enough left over to actually build them.

Zion looked at his balance again. 5,612 suddenly felt much smaller. Floor 3 needed to start earning, and soon.

He shifted his attention back toward the chamber containing the Glittering Treasure Chest. The room looked dangerous even when viewed from above.

A party entering carelessly could trigger the wall darts before they reached the first pillar. The more obvious route toward the chest crossed a trapped floor section, while the serpent pit waited close enough to punish anyone who rushed straight for the gold.

And that was before the Shadow Panther got involved.

He looked at the chest again. If adventurers were going to risk all of that, the reward needed to justify it. He opened the loot settings.

At first, Zion considered keeping the rewards cheap. The entire point of the chest was to generate profit, and every expensive item someone successfully carried away would eat into whatever essence their visit had earned.

But the more he looked at the room, the less that seemed fair. Finding the chest was already difficult. And reaching it was worse.

Anyone who actually managed to open it deserved something good. Besides, the chest only worked as bait if people believed the risk was worth taking.

Zion adjusted the reward range.

100 Essence minimum.

300 Essence maximum.

He hesitated before confirming it. A hundred essence wasn’t cheap anymore. Not compared to the basic equipment he had placed elsewhere on the floor.

An item worth that much would already be noticeably better than what most beginners carried.

That was fine. He just hoped that it was truly as difficult to get to it as he thought.

The more expensive rewards would be rarer anyway. And if someone managed to pull a 300-essence item from the chest, word would probably spread.

That was exactly what he wanted.

Zion confirmed the range and opened the available loot pool. The list was much better than the common rewards he had been using. Most of the equipment was practical rather than flashy.

Reinforced leather armor.

Plated gloves.

Sturdy boots.

Bracers.

Belts.

Several pieces of light metal protection.

Then the more interesting items started appearing:

A narrow silver dagger with a dark leather grip.

A pair of earrings that slightly improved hearing.

A ring with minor resistance to poison.

Several necklaces.

A pair of enchanted gloves that improved grip strength.

Zion slowed as he went through them. Nothing looked absurdly powerful, which was good. Handing out overly powerful items would only expedite his demise.

The whole point was to make the rewards exciting without repeating the mistake he had made with the Pendant of Lesser Sanctuary or handing over a loaded gun.

Then he reached the food section.

Zion stopped. There were several prepared meals listed alongside the equipment. He stared at them.

"What?"

A loaf of some kind of enchanted bread cost seventy essence. A jar of golden honey was ninety. Then he found a thick slab of heavily marbled raw steak.

[Prime Moonhorn Beef]

[Reward Value: 120 Essence]

He opened the description.

It was meat. Very good meat, apparently.

The description mentioned exceptional quality, enhanced nutritional value, and something about improving physical recovery when cooked properly.

Zion stared at the price again.

"One hundred and twenty essence for steak?"

He rotated the preview. It did look good. Even raw, the marbling was ridiculous.

He had no idea why a dungeon adventurer would want to crawl through traps for expensive meat, but the system had apparently decided it belonged in the same reward category as reinforced armor.

There had to be a reason. He left it in the pool. Someone would probably be thrilled, maybe some kind of foodie adventurer.

Farther down, the rewards became noticeably more expensive. Several mildly enchanted weapons appeared around the 200-essence range. A silver chain bracelet offered slight resistance to curse effects. A reinforced mantle reduced damage from glancing blows.

Then Zion reached the most expensive item in the pool.

He stopped scrolling.

[Veilcloak of the Hollow Night]

1

[Reward Value: 300 Essence]

The preview showed a long black velvet cloak with a high collar and a wide hood. Fine black embroidery covered the edges in patterns that were difficult to see until the light struck them from the right angle.

He rotated it slowly. "That looks expensive and high quality."

It did not look like something that belonged in a beginner dungeon. Not because it was excessively ornate, but because the details were too good.

Even the black thread embroidery looked deliberate, curling across the velvet in overlapping patterns that almost disappeared into the fabric.

The effect was useful too.

[Veiled Presence — Significantly reduces the wearer’s noticeable presence while moving slowly or remaining still.]

That would absolutely make people talk.

Zion added it to the loot pool, then adjusted the probability so the higher-value items appeared far less often than the cheaper ones.

Most successful openings would reward something in the 100-to-150 range. Two-hundred-essence items would be uncommon, and anything approaching 300 would be rare.

That felt right.