Chapter 43: Constructing the Underground City

Winter arrived, and under the urging of a thick layer of snow, the territory once again fell into tranquility. The heavy snow concealed all activities, leaving only wisps of smoke and Owen still busy.

After the exposure of the goblins and the Magic Horn Forest Wooden Fortress, Owen had a sense of urgency. In addition to strengthening their power, he also urgently wanted to create more trump cards, more bases, and more troops. So, with the rare free time and sufficient Progress Value, he focused his energy on building the underground city.

Below the original underground chamber, Owen planned to exchange for underground passages, secret doors, traps, chambers, and a palace. It was like playing with building blocks, constructing a three-level underground city beneath the castle according to his own ideas.

This was definitely a massive project. According to Owen’s vision, the first level of the underground city would be built as a labyrinth, guarded by classic monsters. The second level would serve as a production and cultivation area, as the underground city also needed to be self-sufficient. The third level would house the Demon Lord’s palace and barracks.

Building an underground city beneath the underground chamber below the castle cellar was a rather bizarre idea, like an endless layer cake. However, it would definitely be unexpected.

If possible, Owen even wanted to build a core city beneath the underground city, complete with an extensive subway system, truly achieving the layer cake accomplishment.

But there was no point in thinking about that now. He’d wait until the Progress Value limit exceeded fifty.

The current underground city was still just a crude blueprint drawn by Owen. Even if all the Progress Value was used here, it would still take several years to fully materialize.

However, Owen was not in a hurry. Building a city from scratch was not that simple. There were many things to consider. So, besides expanding the original underground chamber, he was focusing on building the first level of the underground city. In reality, he was expanding on the basis of the castle’s original underground passage, making it more intricate and interconnected, also serving as a labyrinth.

Owen had been busy building the underground passage during this time. Because he hadn’t spent time creating more detailed blueprints, he often improvised, leading to him getting lost, as expected.

“It seems I need to prepare some guards and servants for the underground city, at least someone to lead me out when I get lost,” Owen said with a helpless sigh, wiping the sweat from his forehead after successfully returning by exchanging for an underground passage.

His sense of direction wasn’t great in his previous life. He was fine in familiar places, but he would definitely get lost if he went a little further. He just didn’t expect it to be the same in this life.

Fortunately, he lived in the vast Northland, where he could find his way with a compass. But who would have thought he would build an underground labyrinth beneath his own castle and get lost? It was truly unbelievable.

This strengthened Owen’s resolve to prepare servants and guards for the underground city, as he couldn’t rely on exchanging for underground passages every time he got lost.

Currently, he randomly summoned one of four types of monsters daily. Goblins and Demon Sheep were sent to the Goblin General, who was trying to train a Goblin Demon Sheep cavalry. Owen had even prepared some equipment for him.

Now, only Poisonous Snakes and Slimes remained in the castle. They roamed the underground passages, catching rats and insects in the castle while cleaning dust from corners, keeping the castle clean and tidy.

However, they were not suitable as guards or servants. Owen needed something bigger and smarter.

Goblins were actually quite good, but they were too ugly. That’s why he had moved all the goblins to the Magic Horn Forest, out of sight, out of mind.

Returning to the underground chamber, Owen went to the living area to take a bath and change clothes. He then placed his kettle on the Torch Stump, waiting for the water to boil.

The underground chamber was originally Owen’s workshop for making puppets. Later, it became crowded due to the addition of the Synthesis Furnace, so he expanded it again.

However, because of the construction of the underground city, the expansion did not go downwards. Instead, he expanded the area to 600 square meters on the original basis and divided it into three major areas:

In addition to the work area and the synthesis area, there was also a more complete living area.

Because he often stayed inside for several days, Owen put a lot of effort into building the living area. Besides areas for sleeping, bathing, and resting, he also allocated half of the space to build a small garden to improve the environment of the underground chamber.

In fact, if he had enough food and a computer with internet access, Owen could stay here for six months straight.

Unfortunately, there was no internet in this world, so Owen had to find his own ways to pass the time.

Feeling refreshed, Owen sat at his workbench with a cup of coffee, lost in thought. Feeling something touch his foot, he looked down and saw a Slime.

He casually picked up the volleyball-sized Slime and played with it in his hand. Although this peculiar creature was a type of monster, it had an excellent texture, very Q-elastic, and squeezing it was stress-relieving. It was also warm in winter and cool in summer. If it were bigger…

Suddenly struck by an idea, Owen exchanged for a Puppet’s Intelligent Core. After setting the intelligence template, he fused it with the Slime in the Synthesis Furnace. To his surprise, he actually obtained a Slime Maid.

The Slime Maid was about 1.6 meters tall and looked like a maid figurine made of jelly. It was semi-transparent with a very Q-elastic texture. Because it had no bones, it couldn’t walk with its legs and could only move by squirming. However, it wasn’t too slow.

Because it was essentially a Slime, the Slime Maid had the ability to shapeshift. You could completely knead it into any shape you wanted, fully satisfying some of the unspoken desires in your heart.

Unfortunately, the Slime’s bodily fluids were acidic and quite corrosive. Whether it was a small prey it captured or debris it cleaned up, everything would be dissolved after a while.

This limited Owen’s imagination and also preserved his remaining moral bottom line.

After all, monster girls were simply amazing!

Due to its special constitution, the Slime was immune to most physical attacks, but it lacked offensive capabilities. It could only engulf prey until they dissolved or spit acidic fluids.

However, as long as the appearance was attractive enough, Owen didn’t care about these flaws. So he made quite a few, not only for the underground chamber and the labyrinth but also for the castle.

The Slime Maid wasn’t very intelligent, but it could handle simple tasks like cleaning, serving tea, welcoming guests, and leading the way. After all, the fusion with the Intelligent Core wasn’t for nothing.

After solving the servant problem with the Slimes, Owen’s mind was completely opened.

Besides servants and guards, there were many shortcomings in the first level labyrinth he was building, such as dim lighting, stale air, low temperature, poor decoration, and an unpleasant environment.

Looking up at the small garden in the living area, Owen found a solution.