Thinking about the fifty pieces he cunningly acquired, a wave of joy washed over Spirit, but the smile faded the moment he saw his Contribution Value.

Damn!

He had forgotten about the cost of revival!!!

...

Two weeks had passed since the suppression of the Dragon Roaming clan's rebellion.

In those two weeks, the Great Graveyard seemed to have entered a period of stable development. Aside from the daily noise from the players, there weren't any significant incidents.

Luo Yan was pleased to see his little players gradually getting used to the rhythm of "Cataclysm Online" and to life as corpses.

As more and more players advanced to the rank of Iron, the species in the Great Graveyard became richer, with zombies and Lizardman Zombies beginning to appear one after the other.

Starting with zombies, Undead creatures needed to eat, and they also began to develop a sense of "decency."

After all, taking off your pants once is different from an entire lifetime without pants — not all players had the courage to run around butt-naked...

Even if it was just their virtual game characters.

The NPC shops in the Great Graveyard were increasingly unable to meet the growing needs of the players.

Under the stimulus of these needs, a group of stall-setting players emerged one after another in the square at the entrance of the labyrinth.

These stall-setting players mainly traded the spoils of the labyrinth.

For example, almost every day at a fixed spot, there would be someone with the ID "Dragon Roaming XX" sitting there, selling harpoons, merfolk's armor, and short weapons. He also bought all sorts of equipment at a slightly higher price than the NPC shops, without limit.

This unchanging stall almost developed into a fixed storefront, which made Luo Yan wonder if he should start collecting some kind of business tax from these fellows.

Or should he fatten them up first, then harvest when the leeks were thicker?

Apart from the players who dominated the market's transaction volume by buying and selling spoils of war, there were also players who were crafting and selling their own equipment.

Especially gratifying to Luo Yan was that the Great Graveyard's first leather factory hadn't gone bankrupt. On the contrary, it was supplying the market with a batch of decent quality leather armor.

These leather armors were mainly made of rat skins, mixed with some lizard skins, sewn firmly together with threads spun from spider silk.

The craftsmanship of these equipments had even reached the point of being marketable in human markets. Both their appearance and protective capabilities were quite reliable, and the prices were also not too expensive — at least much cheaper than what NPC shops sold.

Besides armor, there were also weapons.

Although the use of large-caliber explosives was prohibited in the labyrinth, some small-caliber weapons were still allowed.

Such as fragmentation grenades.

Such as improved gunpowder for musket bullets, and so on.

These products were mainly from someone called "Knockout Chemical Pond," and that guy named Gou Shi was probably his partner, mainly responsible for sales.

Not only did players buy explosives from them, but Luo Yan occasionally procured from them as well.

This was mainly due to the civil engineering spiders' foreman Alakdo's request.

After realizing the power and benefits of explosives, he immediately set his little spider minions on the task.

The construction efficiency of the civil engineering spiders doubled with the use of explosives, and although the casualty rate also doubled, it wasn't a big deal.

Those little spiders born for specific purposes were disposable anyway. Being able to build grander palaces for Her Majesty the Queen and Lord Demon King was their greatest honor.

It wasn't only the players of the Great Graveyard that were active; the vassals were as well.

The completely subdued Geckos had gradually restored their former order and under the strict discipline of Corpse Demon Clan Chief Zelik, they had produced the first batch of twenty acolytes.

Currently, their task was to spread the faith of Lord Demon King and develop his followers within the Gecko clan.

Once the Summoning Altar was built, Luo Yan would reassign them to more technical jobs, such as summoning and breeding demons and the like.

The order in the first layer of the labyrinth was stable, and so was the second layer.

The emissaries from the Land of Nightmare would come flying over every so often, bringing new crosses and hand-written letters from Lady Qianqian.

Luo Yan wasn't actually averse to maintaining his relationship with his vassals through letter correspondence; it was just that he found Lady Qianqian's "talkative reports" somewhat annoying.

For instance, "Respected Lord Demon King, your most loyal subject found a very beautifully colored beetle today...]

How the hell was he supposed to reply to that kind of letter?

Should he respond with something like, "Not bad, I quite like it, bring it to me next time"?

Luo Yan had flipped through the notes he brought from the Demon King Academy and couldn't find a standard answer. He could only respond incongruously—

[Hahaha, what a coincidence, I also came across a very beautifully colored centipede during my inspection of the territory today.]

That was, at least, the truth.

Lately, Luo Yan had nothing special to pay attention to; he was basically waiting patiently for the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Demon City to remember their distant enclave in the East, while grinding monsters between the second and third floors of the maze to level up.

Thankfully, from the response from the Land of Nightmare, it seems that Miss Qianqian did not feel disappointed by his nonsensical reply.

Even a bit happy?

Luo Yan truly could not comprehend what the Little Demon was thinking all day.

And every time he wanted to ask for clarification, the expression on the face of the Little Demon delivering the letter was such that he simply couldn't bring himself to ask.

Thinking that maintaining the status quo wasn't too bad, Luo Yan stopped inquiring further.

Apart from these daily trivialities, what pleased Luo Yan the most was Sarah's performance.

In just a short period of two weeks, she had learned the basic skills of stealth and trap disarming, and she handled her twin daggers with great proficiency, having even progressed to the point of being helpful while Luo Yan was grinding monsters in the maze.

This rate of progress could rightfully be described as astonishing.

In Chris's words, she was a "Demon" who was a natural-born thief, best at living in dark corners and leading a life like a rat.

Even though Sarah was not bothered by this jealousy-ridden description and was sincerely happy to finally be able to contribute, Luo Yan undoubtedly saw it as discriminatory.

Politically incorrect in front of Demon City's number one "protected species," right?

With the intent to demonstrate the majesty of the Demon King, Luo Yan severely disciplined this loose-tongued individual, absorbing her essence until she was almost in heaven before stopping...

...

The second layer of the maze.

Another day of monster grinding.

Using the energy he had recently absorbed from someone, Luo Yan stood in the maze and waved his magic wand with a flick of his wrist, instantly shooting down a gigantic centipede at the corner of the cave.

Amidst the rolling dust, Bond, carrying his greatsword, and Octo, wielding his scimitar, walked up from either side to harvest materials from the monster's body.

Sarah, responsible for detecting enemies and pulling monsters, jogged up to Luo Yan's side and tenderly handed him a wet towel.

"Thanks."

Although he hadn't gotten dusty, Luo Yan still smiled, accepted the towel to wipe his face and hands, then opened his attribute panel, which he hadn't looked at in two weeks, for a glance.

[

ID: Luo Yan

Race: Human

Soul Level: Fine Steel (Level Cap: LV50)

Level: LV.39 (+3)

Experience: (51/360K)

Constitution: 16 (+1)

Strength: 13

Agility: 14 (+1)

Intelligence: 46 (+4)

Spirit: 45 (+3)

]

"Gained three levels, not bad at all."

Luo Yan was quite satisfied with his leveling pace.

After all, with three others in the team sharing experience and the low intensity of battle, his leveling speed was quite fast.

The only pity was that one attribute point had been wasted on agility.

But Luo Yan had come to terms with it.

Surprises are the norm in life; there's nothing that can be perfectly controlled forever.

Moreover, compared to his own thirties level, the growth of the other three members who were of lower level was more pronounced.

Bond and Octo, reborn as Corpse Demons, had reached the Bronze tier, and Sarah had also ascended to Black Iron upon comprehending Extraordinary Power.

Looking at Bond and Octo, who had returned from collecting materials from the monster's corpse, just as Luo Yan was preparing to lead his minions to grind the next group, Youyou's exuberant voice suddenly reached his ears.

"Lord Demon King! The reply from Demon City has finally arrived!"

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