Fortunately, the next few weeks went by without any incident. A few Flood Dragon scouts showed up, only to be quashed by my Guardian Golems and Colossal Crabs, but besides their now regular appearance, a full fledge invasion force had yet to appear. There were rumblings in the distance, rumors brought by the Merchant and other denizens of the dungeons who showed up in my bar.
There was a teddy bear looking spirit beast who sipped honey flavored wine, and a bunch of humanoid yet freaky looking creatures that looked half-plant. Some guy with tentacles for mouths also visited, raising his mug of beer to salute me when I showed up. It was kind of funny, I opened the bar, but I didn't drink beer or wine, just mango juice or iced coffee whenever I sat at the counter.
That was fine. The bar was more for my summoned spirit beasts, especially my Collector Crabs and Construction Crabs and Little Anglers after a hard day of work. The Lantern Fishes too.
And I dared to hope that war wouldn't descend upon us. For now.
Before that, though, the end of the semester arrived. As promised, Ling Zhen passed me when I attended the rest of the classes as per normal. Fortunately, it wasn't a fake pass. Thanks to Sylvie helping me with spirit arrays, I was able to master the basics and score well on the beginners exam that Ling Zhen issued on the last day of class.
"Good work!" Silvia laughed when I shared the news. "I knew you would pass! Now treat us to ice cream, our dear master!"
"Why are you acting so high and mighty when you weren't the one who helped, Silvia?" Sylvie sulked. I patted her head.
"Thank you, Sylvie. If it wasn't for you, I don't know how I would pass the spirit arrays exam."
"Of course, it's to give you quality time alone with bro-in-law, big sis!" Silvia winked, only for Sylvie to smack her. She dodged, and then ran around the dungeon as Sylvie chased after her, furious. I understood her rage and panic. If Myria heard that, she might throw both sisters out of the apartment. Nah, she wouldn't, but still, women didn't like those kinds of jokes.
While the twin sisters played around and frolicked about, I received a notification from the system.
-Quest completed. An Array of Knowledge has been completed. The following reward will be awarded: Spirit Beast Booster Spirit Array. It provides a buff to summoned spirit beasts within the spirit array, increasing their offensive and defensive capabilities, speed and qi by 10%. –
"Whoa, that's an incredible reward." I was taken by surprise. 10% might not sound like a lot, but it was still pretty significant, especially when we were talking about entire armies of summoned spirit beasts. If I set it up in my dungeon, I would have an increase of 10% over hundreds of spirit beasts, not just one. It was actually pretty potent when you looked at it overall.
While the knowledge entered my mind, I understood why the system required me to take a class on spirit arrays as a mission. Without the relevant, basic knowledge of spirit arrays and the elemental runes required to set them up, I wouldn't be able to absorb the knowledge of the Spirit Beast Booster Spirit Array. Still, this was quite the gain.
"Excellent, I'll go set this up. Sylvie, Silvia, if you don't mind helping me?"
"Sure!"
"Eh…you can just do it with big sis. I will just hang around here…"
"NO! Silvia, you're coming with us!"
"Ouch, ouch, ouch! Not my ear, big sis! You're going to tear off my ear!" Silvia winced when Sylvie grabbed hold of her and dragged her along.
Just in time too, because we might need this particular spirit array to buff my summoned spirit beasts against the flood dragons or other invading dungeon armies…
Once we were done, we returned to the bar for a drink or two. Since Sylvie and Silvia helped me, I treated them to ice cream. Yeah, we had a store of ice cream in the bar because I often brought a few tubs along in my storage device when teleporting here. That was also why we had mango juice here. I wanted to share the stuff with my spirit beasts.
"Nice! I feel revitalized!"
"You didn't do much. Jun Wen and I did most of the work, while you mostly played around!"
"Eh, don't be like that. I did take care of the northside runes."
"It's fine. Both of you worked hard. Especially you, Sylvie." I patted her head again. She pouted, but closed her eyes happily when I tousled her long blond hair.
"Nade nade!"
"R…right."
There was a cough, and I turned around to see the Merchant sitting a few seats away at the counter. He watched us for a second with those glowing red eyes before shifting his ghostly gaze downward.
"A…anyway, Lord Song, I'm here to offer you a deal today."
"Huh? A deal? Intelligence on the Flood Dragon Dungeon or the Flood Dragons?"
"No. Actually, I'm here to offer you precious gemstones that you can use to upgrade your dungeon further. If I'm not mistaken, your dungeon is a dual core, right?"
"Yeah."
"That means you need to upgrade both cores individually." The Merchant slid his hand across the counter, slightly away from his glass of pumpkin spiced latte. I noticed that he really, really liked that drink. "And I have the gemstones you require to improve your dungeon to the next level. More potent that the spirit diamonds you used previously."
How did he even know about that…never mind. He was the Merchant. Intelligence and information were his lifeblood. I shouldn't be surprised about how much he knew.
"Okay, and I'm guessing you want something from me to exchange for those gemstones."
"That is correct."
I tried not to sigh, feeling a headache build behind my temples. This was going to be trouble. Most likely, I wouldn't have anything he wanted, so I would need to go look for them. At the same time, I couldn't afford not to upgrade my dungeon.
"All right, what exactly do you want to trade the spirit gems for?"
"10 pumpkin pies. Give me 10 pumpkin pies, and I'll give you the two spirit gems you need. The Abyssal Sea Stone and the Thousand-Year-Old Sacred Ginseng Root."
For a moment, I wondered if I had misheard him.
"…10 pumpkin pies?"
"Yup. 10 pumpkin pies. No less, and don't bother bargaining with me. I won't settle for anything less."
I honestly had no idea what to say. After staring at him in disbelief for a few seconds, I finally snapped out of my stupor and turned to my Lantern Fish bartender.
"Xiao Jiu, bake 10 pumpkin pies and wrap them up for this gentleman over here."
"Consider it done." Xiao Jiu, my Lantern Fish bartender, turned and slid through the curtains separating the beer and wine counter from the kitchen. I turned back to the Merchant.
"That's all? Only 10 pumpkin pies? Anything else?"
"That's it." The Merchant leaned closer, his eyes glowing sinisterly. "My friend, you have no idea how rare and valuable your pumpkin pies are. Perhaps you can get as many as you want from outside the Celestial Labyrinth, but down here, all the way in these depths, it's impossible for us Labyrinth creatures to obtain any pumpkin flavored food. Actually, your dungeon is the only one providing us with human delicacies and foods. They are already in huge demand."
I seriously didn't know how to respond to that. At a total loss for words, I simply shook my head and sat at the counter dumbly, my mind still struggling to process what had just happened.
About thirty minutes later, Xiao Jiu emerged with ten boxes of pumpkin pies and piled them on the counter in front of the Merchant. The Merchant gleefully stored nine of them in his storage device, sweeping them under his robes and just making them vanish into thin air. Then he opened the last box that he had left outside and began munching on a slice of pumpkin pie.
"Hmm…delicious! This is awesome!"
I tried not to gape at him, instead turning to nod at Xiao Jiu.
"Thanks, Xiao Jiu. I'll pay you extra after this."
"Only doing my duty, boss. Don't worry about it."
"Nah, you get extra food after this. Help yourself to whatever in the storeroom. Just check it off on the list so that Long Wang and I know what you took, but you can take as much as you want."
"Will do, boss. Thanks!"
"Well done, Xiao Jiu." Sylvie smiled at him, causing him to blush a little.
"Not at all, my lady. Only doing my job."
After the exchange, I realized the Merchant was staring at me. He shoved another slice of pumpkin pie under his hood, and though I had no idea how he was eating it because I didn't see a mouth – the slice appeared to be sucked into the shadows and disappear from sight – I put on a smile.
"I hope the pumpkin pie is to your satisfaction, Sir Merchant."
"It is! It definitely is!"
He swallowed it, and then as if remembering something, took a couple of glowing gemstones and placed them on the counter. One of them was a hand-sized gemstone of the deepest blue, watery qi swirling around it like a tempest. The other was a root, but despite the wrinkled, dried bark that stretched over its odd shape, I could sense the ancient, potent natural qi that suffused it.
"The Abyssal Sea Stone and the Thousand-Year-Old Sacred Ginseng Root," the Merchant announced. "As agreed, these are now yours."
He then punctuated his sentence by swallowing another slice of the dwindling pumpkin pie.
"Er…right. Thank you very much."
Less than an hour later, after the Merchant left, I went off to the dungeon cores. First, I went to the Ancient Aquatic Artifact and deposited the Abyssal Sea Gemstone there.
-Would you like to upgrade your dungeon? –
"Yeah, of course."
-Upgrade initializing. Seven days to completion. Remaining time: 6 days 23 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds. –
The same thing happened when I fed the budding World Tree the Thousand-year-old Sacred Ginseng Root. After telling the system that, yes, I wanted to upgrade my dungeon, it initialized the process and displayed a time. Both required another week to complete the upgrade.
"Oh? Seems like you found the gemstones necessary to upgrade your dungeon." Silvia flitted lower to stare at the glowing World Tree, admiring it in awe. She and Sylvie had followed me out of the bar after the Merchant left, and also witnessed the trade.
"Still, I'm surprised that all the Merchant wanted were pumpkin pies in exchange for such treasures. I mean, I'm not complaining, but I didn't think they would be this valuable in the Celestial Labyrinth." Sylvie shook her head, amazed. "This is a really good deal for us."
"Yeah," I agreed.
"We haven't been to the Celestial Labyrinth before, and we've only heard dreadful rumors about it. I never imagined that they would like pumpkin so much. It's interesting…we occasionally have pumpkins too back in the village, thanks to the Ghost Pumpkins and Wraith Pumpkins in Spectral Forest, but we never thought of it as rare. I guess they don't have them down here this deep in the Celestial Labyrinth."
"Oh? Fairies eat pumpkins too?"
"Of course. We eat the same food humans do." Sylvie scratched her head. "We can actually be considered the same species, just with certain physical and spiritual differences. Like our wings, but otherwise our DNA is almost 99.9% the same."
"That's why you don't have to worry! Bro-in-law, you and big sis can have children!"
"Stop it, Silvia!"
The two fairy sisters engaged in another game of tag, with Silvia laughing her head off as she fled from her angry sister's pursuit. I watched them and chuckled wryly, only to notice that a small group of Ghost Pumpkins were flying toward me in a panic.
"What's up, guys? Is something wrong?"
"My lord!" The lead Ghost Pumpkin came to a stop in front of me, his cute face full of perspiration as he trembled. "I bring ill news. The Flood Dragon army is on the move. We believe they are heading here in force! Even though they don't know where exactly our dungeon is because we have eliminated their scouting parties, they vaguely know which direction to go to. I fear that they will be here within the week!"
My blood turned cold and I glanced at the tiny World Tree, the timer only having gone down to 6 days 23 hours 53 minutes 17 seconds. Within the week? Right before the upgrades could be done? What horrible timing! Couldn't they just wait a bit longer?
Well, there was no point cursing my luck. With the circumstances being what they were, there was only one thing we could do.
"Send out an alert," I said, already moving to where Long Wang was. Having sensed the severity of the situation, Sylvie and Silvia dropped down beside me and followed, their formerly cheerful features filled with tension. "We're going to prepare our dungeon for war."