Demon King City Environmental Transformation Plan

After waking up and eating some tasteless roasted mushrooms, Caelan led the Skeleton Soldiers guarding the gate down to the first floor.

The Kobold corpses from yesterday were still there, so he thought for a moment and released the Kobold Assault Squad, letting them eat.

These monsters living in the wilderness inherently had a cannibalistic nature, and although they wouldn't starve to death after being sealed into the Chaos Encyclopedia, they wouldn't recover without food.

They still bore the injuries from being struck by the Skeleton Soldiers yesterday, and without proper recovery, they wouldn't have combat strength when needed next time.

Moreover, Kobolds, unlike Skeleton Soldiers, require food even after being subdued, which was one reason Caelan decided to expand cultivation.

If he were to collect more monsters in the future, the few mushrooms he cultivated would certainly not be enough.

There were plenty of seeds left in the castle, and Caelan hadn't figured out what many varieties would grow into, so he still needed to research them.

Back then, with so many monsters in and around the Demon King's City, they couldn't possibly rely solely on plundering human supplies; they did have some cultivation and animal husbandry capabilities, but because the monsters were uncontrollable, they often couldn't be self-sufficient.

However, with the Chaos Encyclopedia, whether it was Undead, Kobolds, or anything else, they were all labor, so the situation should be better than when the Previous Demon King ruled...

At least, from an optimistic perspective, that's how it is; whether it actually works, he'll know once he tries.

But no matter what, to grow things, there must first be sunlight.

So, this grand magic array absolutely had to be turned off today.

Caelan, with a few Skeleton Soldiers, went down to the basement through a small door behind the main hall.

No one had been here for a long time; cobwebs and various small insects were everywhere, along with some small monsters that preyed on insects.

These monsters had virtually no combat power; hearing Caelan's voice from afar, they scurried away out of sight, and Caelan was too lazy to waste time catching them.

He held a torch and walked in the middle of the Skeleton Soldiers, lighting the wall sconces along the way.

He soon arrived at a square, empty room, with two doors ahead and two on each side.

Of these three doors, originally only the one on the right could be opened directly; the left door required a detour to the second basement level and then back up, while the key for the middle door was in a treasure chest after entering the left door, solving a mechanism lock at a fork, and then taking a lift down.

Why was Caelan so clear about this? Because he had already walked through it once... following the construction blueprints left behind.

That key was now in his pocket.

He directly used the key to open the middle door, which led to another square, empty room.

The room was divided in half by an iron grate, with a treasure chest behind it, and on Caelan's side, there were stairs on each side, going up and down respectively.

Going down the stairs on the right would lead to a sealed door, which required going to a room on the first floor through the left side, getting a key from a cabinet, to open it.

Of course, Caelan had also obtained this key in advance.

This was just the beginning.

The person who originally designed this castle must have had some kind of problem; doors that could be opened directly were inexplicably locked from the inside, requiring a detour to open them from behind, or a special lock was made, necessitating a trip to another location to obtain the key.

It was as if they rejected people from entering, yet secretly wished for them to enter, a feeling of feigned reluctance.

And anyone who has used keys and locks knows that after many insertions, they become increasingly loose; whether you can hit the right spot requires not only force and angle but also a certain amount of experience.

So even though the door was right there and the key was in hand, this centuries-old broken door still took ages to open.

Besides, the map even had places where, as you walked, a lift would suddenly go straight to the ground floor, and upon exiting, you'd find yourself at the entrance.

In fact, the upper part of the castle was designed similarly, but the Previous Demon King had already opened all the doors when he was there, so it was relatively smooth to navigate.

If all the doors were closed and the keys returned to their original positions, it would take Caelan at least half an hour just to get from the castle entrance to his bedroom.

If it were someone who had never been inside trying to find their way, they probably wouldn't get out in a day and a night.

...So who designed this thing anyway!

When he once again detoured to a door, Caelan finally couldn't help but complain loudly.

This spot was only one door away from where he had been ten minutes ago, but this particular door would automatically close and lock itself after a period, forcing him to detour to the back to open it again.

However, reaching this point meant he was finally nearing the end.

Continuing forward were stairs leading down; turning here and taking another set of stairs would lead to an intermediate level between the first and second basements, which, according to the map, was directly beneath the throne.

In the middle of the magic array icon drawn on the map, there was also a pattern that looked like the head of some kind of beast.

The magic array was set up here.

Before Caelan was a large door carved with intricate patterns, and pressing against the door, he could hear a loud snoring sound coming from inside.

Last time, Caelan had reached this point, then turned back, and had not come down again since.

Revisiting the place this time, Caelan was also slightly nervous; he took a few deep breaths, adjusted to the slightly damp, putrid smell around him, then placed his hands on the large door and pushed forward.

Grrrrrr—

Accompanied by the grating sound of the door opening, the heavy door slowly pushed open, and a cloud of ancient dust rushed out.

Cough, cough, cough... Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey, what the hell!

Caelan, his face covered in dust, waved his hands repeatedly to swat away the dust in front of him, then spat several times on the ground before feeling a little better.

However, he immediately noticed that the thunderous snoring he had been hearing had stopped.

In the darkness before him, a pair of crimson vertical pupils were staring intently in his direction.