Chapter 29: Poverty Is Chasing Yet Again

Chapter 29: Poverty Is Chasing Yet Again In the dungeon core room, Karl now stood before the holographic display, which shimmered with a new category: "Magic-Infused Common Production Blueprints." His empty eye sockets scanned the extensive list, a dry whistle escaping his non-existent lips. Everything is reaaaaalllyyy good. ???? BoneMartTM – Necro Approved! ???? Magic-Infused Common Production Blueprints ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ???? Balance: 1,590 Necro Points (NP)???? Categories: [⚙️ Blueprints] [????️ Structures] [???? Tools ] [???? Materials] [???? Resources] [???? Logistics] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ???? Magic-Assisted Industrial Structures [???? StoneShaper Foundry] – 260 NP → Refines raw stone into bricks, slabs, and carved decorations → Feature: Uses Earth Stones for smoother shaping, faster cutting → Output: Building Bricks, Stone Tiles, Artistic Slabs → Bonus: +30% carving speed, +15% structural density [???? Purchase] [???? View Details] [???? Growth Tunnel Unit] – 250 NP → Indoor farm lanes using light stones for accelerated growth → Output: Crops (grains, roots), Fast-Grown Mushrooms → Feature: Water-recycling channel powered by Flow Stones → Bonus: Harvest cycle every 6 hours (vs 24 normal) [???? Purchase] [???? View Details] [???? Smoked Ash Rack] – 200 NP → Meat preservation station using Ember Stones and airflow → Output: Smoked Meat, Jerky, Preserved Organs → Feature: Auto-drying via ambient magical heat → Bonus: +50% shelf life, +5 morale bonus if served [???? Purchase] [???? View Details] [???? Hearthstone Bakery] – 280 NP → Processes grain + mushrooms into bread and dried rations → Feature: Uniform baking using Ember and Warmth Stones → Output: Flatbread, Mushroom Biscuits, Hardtack → Bonus: +20% productivity bonus to skeletons fed on fresh bread [???? Purchase] [???? View Details] [???? Bone-Kiln Dryhouse] – 230 NP → Dries, hardens, and cures wood for use in advanced projects → Output: Treated Planks, Burnt Timber, Cured Shafts → Feature: Auto-ventilation using Fire-Air hybrid stones → Bonus: +15% durability on all produced wooden goods [???? Purchase] [???? View Details] [???? Softloom Spindle House] – 240 NP → Processes hides, fibers, and cloth into thread and sheets → Feature: Threaded motion driven by movement stones → Output: Leather Sheets, Linen, Simple Rope → Bonus: -20% material loss; softens even rough beast hide [???? Purchase] [???? View Details] [???? Coldcell Ice House] – 300 NP → Dungeon refrigeration using passive Frost Stones → Output: Chilled Storage (perishable goods), Ice Blocks → Feature: Stone shelf units absorb ambient spoilage → Bonus: Prevents food rot for up to 5 days dungeon-time [???? Purchase] [???? View Details] [???? Pureflow Filter Hub] – 270 NP → Purifies dungeon water into clean supply via Water Stones → Output: Drinking Water, Alchemical Water → Feature: Passive cleaning; auto-removes trace toxins → Bonus: Allows indoor plumbing for advanced housing [???? Purchase] [???? View Details] [???? Woodcraft Assembler] – 250 NP → Magical woodworking shop for modular furniture & tools → Output: Chairs, Stools, Tool Handles, Boxes → Feature: Stability Stones keep cuts accurate → Bonus: Faster layout creation for internal decorators [???? Purchase] [???? View Details] Karl’s mind raced, prioritizing. I could certainly use the bakery, especially since I had already tasked the Chef with experimenting with the Necro Burger and I’d need a way to store ingredients. The Growth Tunnel Unit is kinda appealing, allowing me to grow crops underground, independent of external farms which is kind of dangerous. The Softloom Spindle House would also be vital for future textiles and the Coldcell Ice House is a must-have for storing meat and other perishables. And the Pureflow Filter Hub? Absolutely essential. Who knows what kind of virus the well I built might introduce? If customers started getting sick, it would be a huge blow to my company’s reputation. He sighed, a dry, rattling sound. "I only have 1,590 NP." He had to choose wisely. He selected the most critical components for immediate needs: [???? Pureflow Filter Hub] – 270 NP → Purifies dungeon water into clean supply via Water Stones → Output: Drinking Water, Alchemical Water → Feature: Passive cleaning; auto-removes trace toxins [???? Coldcell Ice House] – 300 NP → Dungeon refrigeration using passive Frost Stones → Output: Chilled Storage (perishable goods), Ice Blocks → Feature: Stone shelf units absorb ambient spoilage → Bonus: Prevents food rot for up to 35 days dungeon-time Just as he was about to confirm the purchase, a new System recommendation flared on the panel, interrupting his decision. [ Required Structure & Upgrades ] [???? Elemental Infusion Crucible] – 400 NP A precision arcane-smithing unit that infuses base Magic Stones with elemental resonance. → Converts Raw Magic Stones into: ???? ????️???????? Elemental Stones ???? Operated by: Elemental Artisan Skeletons ???? Output: 1 Elemental Stone per 3 min. ???? Sorts infused stones into Storage or routed Workstations ???? Construction Needs: Refined Stone Bricks x20 Forged Steel Frames x10 Arc-Stable Mana Tubes x5 Hardened Clay Panels x8 [???? Purchase] [???? View Details] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ???? Distribution Center Upgrade: Magic Integration Bay ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [⚙️ Distribution Node Upgrade: Elemental Integration Module] – 300 NP → Merges Storage, Builder’s Yard, and Elemental Infusion Systems → Allows auto-routing of elemental stones to upgraded structures → Enables a new Worker Role: Elemental Integrator Skeleton ???? New Capabilities: Tracks elemental input/output by structure Assigns compatible stones per blueprint effect Coordinates upgrade deployment without manual input ???? Requirements: 1x Elemental Artisan Skeleton 10x Refined Steel Fixtures 5x Fused Glass Plates 2x Flow Stones 1x Control Socket Core (Basic) [???? Install Upgrade] ???? Skeleton Worker Pack: Elemental Technicians ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [???? Elemental Artisan Skeleton Pack]– 360 NP A team of 5 advanced skeletons designed to handle Elemental Stones—infusing, crafting, converting, and managing elemental resources across various structures. ???? Pack Includes: 3x Elemental Artisan Skeletons – handle conversion, crafting, infusion 2x Elemental Integrator Skeletons – handle structural integration, tool upgrades ???? Shared Core Skills: Elemental Affinity Recognition – auto-adjusts to stone type (Water, Flow, Earth, Amber) Energy Stabilization – prevents overload or stone failure Precision Crafting – +15% efficiency when handling stone-infused blueprints Structural Syncing – enables direct plug-and-place of infused components into compatible structures Coordination Link – connected to Distribution Center & Builder’s Yard Auto-Reporting – logs stone use, waste, and integration stats ???? Operational Range: Elemental Infusion Crucible ( Required ) Research Center Distribution Center Metallurgy Center Any structure with Magic Stone Integration ???? Base Tools Provided with Pack: 5x Mana-Stabilizing Tongs 3x Stone-Etcher Rods 1x Compact Arc Gauge 1x Field Fitting Press (portable integration device) Karl slumped against the wall again, a dry, rattling sigh escaping him. His non-existent stomach twisted with a familiar ache of financial strain. "When am I gonna be freed of my poverty?" he muttered, the words a low, exasperated rasp. These alone, these recommended upgrades, cost my entire NP budget, not even including the amount of NP I’ll need to buy the construction requirements. The Pureflow Filter Hub and Coldcell Ice House were 570 NP. The Elemental Infusion Crucible and Distribution Center Upgrade added another 700 NP. That was 1270 NP, leaving him with only 320 NP. And the Elemental Technicians pack was another 360 NP, pushing him well over budget. He had to make a choice. He purchased the Pureflow Filter Hub (270 NP) and the Coldcell Ice House (300 NP). Then, he bought the Elemental Infusion Crucible (400 NP) and the Distribution Center Upgrade: Magic Integration Bay (300 NP). This brought his total expenditure to 1270 NP, leaving him with 320 NP. He’d leave the Skeleton Worker Pack for now, a painful but necessary deferral. He would have to buy the necessary construction requirements for the Elemental Infusion Crucible with his remaining NP, hoping it would be enough. Always just enough to scrape by, always a new expense. The life of a Dungeon Lord is truly a relentless pursuit to solve the logistical nightmare.