Now, if someone ever needed to learn how to make a notification actually feel threatening, then witnessing the dungeon prompts firsthand would have been an excellent educational experience.

Befitting the sheer amount of CP sacrificed for the upgrade, the notice appeared in front of every single person in massive glowing text so enormous that the younger children could probably stand beside the letters without looking out of place.

Accordingly, even those who had still been distracted earlier finally became fully captivated as more and more prompts continued appearing one after another.

Only this time, there were significantly more words.

And stranger symbols.

Some of them even resembled incomprehensible glyphs.

[TROVE ADVANCED UPGRADE GRANTED]

[PURIFICATION CHAMBER UPGRADES AVAILABLE]

[DUNGEON-LINKED SPACE UPGRADES AVAILABLE]

[SETTLEMENT EXPANSION GRANTED]

[ARCHIVE RECONSTRUCTION STARTED]

[BASIC TERRAFORMER ACCESS GRANTED]

The list admittedly looked intimidating, but also beautiful.

In fact, many of the prompts flowing through Luca’s vision were already familiar to him.

By now, he had learned the painful distinction between upgrades that were "granted" and those that were merely "available."

The latter almost always meant more CP.

A lot more CP.

Naturally, that realization hurt the money-grubber’s heart a little.

Still, considering the last time the dungeon introduced something "available," they ended up obtaining the dungeon-linked space itself.

So perhaps this would not be so terrible.

There would probably be tears involved, but they’d likely end up as tears of joy.

Eventually.

However, just as Luca mentally prepared himself for the rest of the process—including the tremors, the dramatic environmental changes, and most importantly, the mandatory add-ons they had been bracing themselves for—something unexpected suddenly appeared.

The earlier prompts had all been bold and confident.

These new ones, however, weren’t quite like that, and Luca was certain he saw the massive projection flicker into unfamiliar symbols before returning to its usual look.

Then—

[-------- INITIATION AVAILABLE]

[-------- REPAIR STARTED]

[-------- ACCESS AVAILABLE]

"!"

Huh?

Most people probably would not have found anything odd about that.

But the dungeon owner immediately realized something was wrong.

This was the first time he had encountered dungeon prompts he could not properly read.

No.

Not exactly that.

It was more like...

The words themselves had somehow been redacted?

The golden-eyed Host stared at the strange notifications while trying to process what he had just seen. He even wanted to ask D-29 about it, but before he could do so—

The tremors began.

Then one massive prompt appeared before everyone.

[DUNGEON UPGRADE COMPLETE]

Like an extremely telling finality—or perhaps the signal for a brand-new beginning—the ground shuddered once more as if on cue.

And despite all the warnings the excited first-timers had received beforehand, despite being told to expect tremors and believing they understood what that meant, they were still startled by the sheer intensity of the rumbling beneath them.

Because this was not some mild shaking.

It was the kind that instinctively made people look around for cover.

In particular, the younger girls ended up clinging tightly to their older brothers’ legs for dear life.

Thankfully, Princess Marin had Prince Elior nearby, while Princess Nina had the Imperial Crown Prince, who had already instructed her to stay close because Luca would apparently be "a bit busy" for a while.

Still, now that she’d successfully awakened her bloodline ability, the little Imperial Princess tried her absolute best not to show fear.

As a big girl now, she proudly decided she could at least survive this much.

So while she absolutely clung to her brother tightly, she still managed not to cry or scream.

Though honestly, perhaps part of the reason she didn’t panic was because of the breathtaking scene unfolding before them.

"Woaah..."

It truly looked like a flower blooming before their very eyes.

They watched as the land continuously unfurled outward in smooth, systematic motions, almost as though they were standing inside the center of a giant bud while the world around them slowly blossomed open.

The new terrain spread outward seamlessly until it settled into place, looking as if it had always existed there.

Or perhaps as if it had always been meant to exist there.

Honestly, if not for the constant tremors beneath their feet reminding them this was real, it would’ve been difficult to reconcile the projections with reality.

Especially because the bodies of water shifting across the map were behaving in ways science probably could not explain.

The familiar farmlands they saw nearly every day also seemed to stretch outward alongside the expansion.

Yet strangely enough, nothing looked strained.

If anything, the newly formed land almost looked vibrant.

Alive.

As though it were basking in spiritual energy.

Princess Nina stared with complete fascination.

She honestly didn’t know how to describe what she was seeing, but the sight of vegetation rapidly spreading across the new terrain was so beautiful that she momentarily forgot everything around them was still shaking violently.

However, her attention was suddenly diverted by an excited squeal.

"?"

It was her Brother Chipmunk.

And he was currently staring toward the edge of what appeared to be a massive barrier with intense anticipation.

Then Nina watched as Luca’s entire face lit up the moment the barrier receded outward to encompass a much larger area.

"Yes!" Luca exclaimed happily.

But amusingly enough, the little Princess also witnessed just how quickly her pretty brother’s expression changed when a metallic humming sound suddenly reverberated throughout the area.

At this, she heard her big brother’s calm voice beside her.

"It’s the energy stabilizers."

Oh!

Nina remembered hearing about those earlier.

Apparently, unlike the manually installed pylons they had for the Aquaponic Complex, the original Energy Stabilizers were much more incomprehensible by nature.

And honestly?

They really were.

One after another, glowing pylons began appearing across the holographic projection at predetermined locations. Soon, overlapping circles spread across the map until the entire area looked interconnected and, more importantly, covered.

So cool!

But before Nina could continue admiring them, another prompt suddenly appeared right before her eyes.

Only, unlike what her Brother Chipmunk was probably seeing, the choices beneath were grayed out for her.

[ACTIVATE ENERGY STABILIZER?]

[REQUIREMENT: ENERGY CRYSTAL x 1]

[YES] [NO]

And the little Princess wasn’t far off about that. Everyone else truly was seeing the same thing—everyone except Luca.

But more than that, the dungeon owner himself was currently listening to D-29 confirm that the upgrade now required a total of one hundred twenty-eight Energy Crystals.

"!!!"

Safe to say, the little money-grubber nearly stopped breathing.

It wasn’t that the number sounded impossible.

At this point, they definitely possessed enough crystals.

The terrifying part was something else entirely.

How long would they realistically be able to maintain that supply?

Surely they wouldn’t have to wish for things to be contaminated just so they’d have a rather renewable supply... right?!

"..."

"..."

Well.

At this point, who even knew anymore?

Still, Luca understood there was only one possible answer.

So despite the phantom pain stemming from worry in his chest, he selected—

Yes.

But the moment he did, something unexpected happened.

Several pylons positioned at the same precise elevation suddenly detached from their original locations.

Then, like structures resembling drones, some rose into the air while others sank below ground level.

Now, that was new.

"?!"

But maybe the dungeon owner should have seen that coming.

Because apparently, just as spring always follows winter, prompts demanding even greater spending would inevitably appear after anything even remotely unusual!

__

The designs of the floating and submerged pylon heads were truly magnificent, and one particular blonde looked especially eager to inspect them up close.

Honestly, maybe they really should.

Because after the following prompts appeared before them, it only felt right to squeeze every last bit of value from things that had cost his good brother more than an arm and a leg.

A whole extra zero, in fact.

One that looked like it had feasted on gourmet meals while fattening itself up.

Yep.

To think that just seconds ago, everything looked absolutely normal. At the very least, this one was rather expected.

[INITIALIZING: AQUATIC ECOSYSTEM UPGRADE...]

And while the money-grubber generally did not enjoy spending CP, this was one of the upgrades they had genuinely prepared for.

They needed it.

Anticipated it.

And definitely saved up for it.

So Luca was not particularly shocked by that part.

What did catch him off guard, however, was the prompt that immediately followed.

[PURCHASE AQUATIC ECOSYSTEM UPDATE?]

[COST: 2,000,000 CP]

[YES] [NO]

At this point, the extremely healthy dungeon owner abruptly rubbed his eyes several times.

Surely he was hallucinating.

Yes.

That had to be it.

Fatigue!

Obviously, this was simply fatigue caused by juggling too many responsibilities recently!

So, giving himself the benefit of the doubt, Luca rubbed his eyes again.

Unfortunately for the little penny-pincher, the number remained exactly the same.

Two million.

Two million CP.

"..."

"..."

Now, granted, the earlier aquatic ecosystem purchase had already cost them 200,000 CP.

But this?

This was an entirely different level of financial violence.

Still...

Oddly enough, Luca did not actually feel devastated by the amount itself.

No.

What truly unsettled him was the realization that the prices seemed to be inflating at an alarming rate.

Was this going to become the new normal for them moving forward?

It couldn’t possibly be that bad, right?!

"..."

There was absolute silence from D-29, and Luca’s heart immediately thudded at that. At this point, all he could do was pray that the essentials would remain reasonably priced!

"..."

Well—

If that were the case, then there was only one way to find out.

The nervous dungeon owner selected "Yes" and tried his very best not to look back.

But who would’ve known that simply looking forward was even worse?