After sending Zhen Qing into the Kitchen Instance, Jin had a few more things to take care of. First was the increase in Grade. Now that he was a Grade 5 cultivator, he remembered the perks of the promotion such as the grade promotion for all of his monsters and new equipment cards that he could acquire from the Battle Card Interface.
Jin proceeded to the Dungeon Maker to have a look at the Battle Card Interface and true to its word, the System had a pack of new cards waiting for Jin to open at the vending machine of the Battle Card Interface.
Like a kid in a card store, hoping that there was a rare card in his pack of cards, Jin excitedly tore the packaging from the side and unveiled the cards. The number of cards he received was proportional to the type of monsters that he currently had. With Goblins, Humanoids, Zombies, Werebeasts, ‘Humans’, Deep Ones and Minotaurs, he received 25 cards that would help him with enhancing the capabilities of his monsters.
In addition, Jin was given new decks for the various Minotaurs so he immediately started to optimise his monsters for future dungeons and fights. He figured it would be best to do it as soon as possible in case of any probable attacks against him or when he travelled to other worlds. Also, he decided to do it before he got any lazier like a panda.
“Heh, I should add to my portfolio. Cultivator. Dungeon Supplier. Monster Summoner. Parallel Worlds Traveller and Card Collector.” Jin grinned at that small thought as he continued to inspect the cards for the Minotaurs.
“You called us?” Moloch appeared along with the diverse group of Minotaurs behind him. Yem, Mer, Sebastia and even Mechataur appeared in front of Jin. Luckily, the Dungeon Maker was able to expand in size to accommodate the Mechataur like how it did for Mr Derpy and the crowd of Deep Ones which Jin summoned.
He briefly explained the workings of the card enhancement as he had also done with his other monsters when they first entered the Dungeon Maker. As compared to the initial few times explaining to his monsters when he first got the equipment card deck, this time round was much smoother, faster and spoken with more confidence. In no time, the Minotaurs understood the concept and began to look through the cards that Jin chose for them.
“Ooo different poker card quality.” Moloch was rather happy with his upgrade that Jin inserted for him and so were the rest of the Minotaurs. “Ah yes, did you manage to get the blueprints or some form of city plan for the Dungeon City Fortress ready?” Moloch asked and Jin shook his head.
“I have texted the person…ermm sent a message to a contact of mine. I should get a reply soon or maybe by tonight. I hope.” Jin forgotten Moloch did not know what was a handphone or the modern technology that he was using.
In the meantime, I have given you guys unlimited access to the guest room, until I create a proper home instance for you all. I even asked the Werebeasts to give you guys some work in the fields if you want.” Jin replied.
“Actually, I would like to go back to the Dungeon World and check on the land of the Dungeon City Fortress and perhaps, start setting up a magical barrier with my other servants,” Moloch suggested and it reminded Jin that Moloch had his remaining followers and servants that he had yet to capture.
Jin initially wanted to catch all of them, but later abandoned that thought. If they could resurrect without the system, why should he catch them? Aside from making them stronger with enhancements from equipment cards, each death those minotaurs incurred would eventually add up as expenses for him in the future. He would rather acquire more unique, (and hopefully) stronger monsters from other worlds, or even from Dungeon World, that would aid the defence in the Dungeon City Fortress in the future.
“Imagine if I managed to capture the Monster leaders of those who decided to raid the Dungeon City Fortress.” Jin’s imagination went wild for a moment but later thought of something related to barriers.
“I thought you said that the Dungeon City fortress is protected by the Dungeon Core for about three months?” Jin queried.
“Yes, that is from the Dungeon Core. What I meant was to set up the foundation of the magical barrier for the future, when the Dungeon Core releases its barrier.” Moloch replied as the man puppet adjusted his head even though Moloch did not need any help balancing.
“I thought about it. Even if we can detect invaders that could enter the city and subjugate them without any prejudice, we are still vulnerable to King Baal’s magic. He could summon meteors from nowhere, causing the earth to split thus eradicating our armies (if any) within seconds or send the entire city into chaos before he even sends out his own personal army to attack.”
“Hence, I am going to set the foundations of the magic barrier. It will take me some time and I figure it would be better to do so now, before the construction of the city. That way, the barrier will not just be a superficial one, but a more intricate and sturdy solution that can prevent the types of magic I described…or at the very least reduce the effect of such terrible magic.” Moloch said and Jin agreed to that.
However, before he let Moloch leave, he posed the System a question. “You said you would be partially responsible for the Dungeon City Fortress, right? What is your opinion on making such a large extensive magic barrier?”
“The land mass allocated by the said Dungeon Core is 82,403 km^2, similar to the size of the city of Chong Qing, one of China’s four municipalities, or the approximate size of Austria. To create a magical barrier of such a size would be detrimental to the current grade of Moloch, due to your low cultivation grade and it would result in a barrier that is less than optimal.” The System replied in the Dungeon Maker interface.
“That is not wrong. That was why I said it would just reduce the effects of such strong and wide area of effect (AoE) magic.” Moloch answered.
“The optimal solution is to create a barrier similar to the one currently placed by the Dungeon Core. The System suggests User retrieve a defunct Dungeon Core so that the System might be able to replicate the design of the barrier used.” The interface continued to write.
“Hmm, I know the presence of defunct Dungeon Cores but the existence of such cores is limited. There should not be many around since people and monster tried to exploit their materials. For example, King Baal’s crown was created from a defunct Dungeon Core and it innately increased his powers.” Moloch replied.
“I am surprised you know so much about him.” Jin was curious about Moloch’s relationship with King Baal.
“Hmm hmm. Anyways, I will just prepare to create a basic barrier and ask my servants to scout for information about a defunct Dungeon Core. This way, we will at least still have a barrier against any form of large scale attacks.” Moloch briefly ignored Jin’s prompt and said what was needed which both the System and Jin agreed to.
“If that’s the case, I assume you are sending out your three battle maid leaders to scout?” Jin asked as he looked through his equipment cards and Moloch nodded. “They are my most trustworthy and strongest subordinates. Your monsters’ fight against them was not even at their peak performance. Since I ordered them to just let most adventurers pass after they felt that they tested them enough.”
“But who could have predicted I was up against a monster capturing maniac? Hahahaha!” Moloch laughed and Jin could not help but sniggered too.
“Alright, Yem, Mer, and Sebastia. Come here, I will re-evaluate your equipment once more before Moloch send you out on your scouting expeditions.” Jin said and the three battle maids walked up to him.
“Yes, Master Jin, but do not hesitate to call us back if you ever need our help,” Sebastia responded as the battle maid leaders bowed in front of Jin, instead of kneeling, like they usually have done for their lord, Moloch. Jin was in fact relieved because he felt he had not done enough to deserve that much respect from them.
Jin reviewed their equipment once again and even added some cards from the new card pack to their loadout before they proceeded to scout for defunct Dungeon Cores based on their Lord Moloch’s information.
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