The maze was built starting with the mother skeleton replenishing its magic.

Five seconds left... It's time!

A huge crack appeared in the space in front of Lance, as if a mirror had shattered. Then, a majestic, enormous skeleton draped in a black cloak emerged from the dark crack.

The skeleton's joints were covered in bone spurs, it held a black sword, and green flames of its soul burned brightly in its eyes.

Next up is an LV20 elite skeleton with the talents of [Bone Armor], [Elite], and [Black Sword], as well as [Imperial Swordsmanship LV5], [Powerful Throw LV2], and [Jump Enhancement LV3], and a total of 1200 HP.

Our Super Bone Mister!

Since acquiring the [Production] skill, the barracks have been constantly rebuilding Boneka.

It took about seven days, and a total of 5,000 magic points were invested, while Lance was completely drained every day.

Finally, Super Boneka was born!

The current Boneka's combat power is in no way inferior to that of the former lord Bruce. It can create a level 20 elite monster in seven days, which Lance is quite satisfied with.

Of course, this is thanks to the fact that Bone's base level is 10, which saves some time.

The handsome skeleton that emerged from the void was surrounded by other skeletons in less than three seconds, and then these skeletons began to applaud.

Thanks to Lance's five days of instruction, the skeletons have added "clapping" and "saluting" to their repertoire of emojis.

Even though his attributes have been greatly enhanced, Boneka still retains his original honest and simple personality, and at this moment he is hunching over and scratching his head in embarrassment.

"Guka, come here."

Lance called Boneka over and patted him on the shoulder: "Let me introduce you to the new member of the labyrinth."

"That skeleton sitting on the stone bench looking cool is Martin. He's the boss when Angelica and I aren't around."

Martin, who was sharpening an arrowhead, looked over, and Chongguka nodded slightly.

Bone scratched the back of his head and nodded modestly to Martin.

It seems that the monsters' intelligence has indeed improved as their level increases; at least Boneka's reactions have become more agile.

Lance then led Guka to the work area.

During this time, Lance frequently went to the first and second floors of the Starfall Maze to catch monsters, except for the mine spiders.

Angelica doesn't seem to like spiders.

"Those are kobolds over there. Their hobby is digging. They like to kneel and beg for mercy. Don't kill them, you hear me?"

"This is the body disposal area; these swamp frogs will eat the corpses."

"Then this is the breeding area, where the red bees will produce honey. Remember to check them from time to time to see if they've been eaten by your colleagues."

"Also, that human digging over there is called Glenn, so he's practically one of us."

During this time, Martin would secretly train Glenn, and Lance saw it all on the monitor.

After learning about the bond between the two, Lance essentially acquiesced to this action.

Thanks to training and the experience of Martin's occasional "accidental" gifts, Glenn has now reached level 18 and gets along quite well with the monsters in the dungeon.

He would occasionally visit Martin's empty grave to deliver flowers.

The main thing is that Glenn, that young man, is really capable when it comes to getting things done.

They never complain about hardship or fatigue, and as humans, they can sometimes even help motivate low-intelligence monsters.

Lance likes employees like that.

"This last area is your jurisdiction." Lance led Boneka to a relatively spacious room. "This is the training area. You'll be responsible for training the skeletons' combat skills. Can you manage that?"

Gukali immediately saluted Lance, putting what he had just learned into practice.

Mission accomplished!

Although the maze has grown larger, the only races suitable for combat are still skeletons and zombies.

Among them, the walking corpses are relatively slow and not very suitable as warriors.

Lance intends to have Martin train them to be shooters.

When the enemy realized they needed to prioritize the archers during the battle, they got closer and discovered that each of these archers was incredibly tanky.

Then equip these zombies with the [Blood Explosion LV2] skill, so they will explode if anyone gets close.

They didn't give them any chance at all.

As for skeletons, since their bodies are too fragile, the best approach is to build them into agile vanguards responsible for restraining enemies.

Today is the delivery day for the batch of bows and arrows that were previously ordered from the adventurers, and Lance will soon set off for the Starfall Labyrinth.

Once the goods arrive, Martin can begin training the walkers in archery.

Meanwhile, the production workshop can't be idle either; after the skeleton is finished, the next one to be rebuilt is Bruce.

Since the [Production] skill's cap only allows monsters to be at the same level as Lance, let's equip Bruce with some skills.

After finishing everything at home, Lance instructed Angelica and Martin to look after the house, put on his gear, and then opened a portal to enter the Starfall Maze.

......

Starfall Maze, second floor.

Even without a local kobold to guide him, Lance now knows the terrain of the second floor like the back of his hand.

Ahead lay the agreed-upon delivery location, a dimly lit fork in the road.

Lance leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. The maze was eerily quiet; one could even hear water droplets dripping from the stalactites overhead onto the ground.

The labyrinth has been damp lately, leading Lance to suspect that five days ago, the strange fish in the deeper levels stirred up huge waves, causing the lake water to flood the upper levels of the labyrinth.

If this is the case, the deeper you go, the more profound the impact will be.

But why haven't those three adventurers shown up yet? Could they have really run away with the money?

Just as I was wondering, I faintly heard footsteps coming from the darkness ahead.

Judging from the voice... is it just one person?

The torchlight gradually illuminated the mine, and a pale-faced Bell appeared before Lance, panting.

On his back was a large, grayish-white coarse cloth backpack, in which twenty bows and arrows were secured with animal fur to prevent them from scattering during transport.

They are fairly trustworthy.

Without a word, Bell tossed the backpack in front of Lance, along with the promised one hundred arrows.

His dark circles were very pronounced, as if he hadn't slept for days.

Staring at the knight who was kneeling down to inspect the goods, his lips trembled: "Oli and Lincoln are dead."

As he finished speaking, he saw the mysterious knight pause for a moment.

"We were carrying too much refined iron ore, and we were spotted by raiders as soon as we left the maze," Bell continued, his body still trembling. "The raiders killed them, but I used the [Feign Death] skill to escape."

"Sir Knight, I know this is all our own fault for being greedy, and it has nothing to do with you."

Bell lowered his head, his voice almost choked with emotion: "If I were to ask you to kill those raiders, what price would I have to pay?"

Lance was somewhat helpless.

If those raiders entered the labyrinth, he wouldn't mind taking care of them.

The key is that they were lying in wait outside the maze, and even the mighty King of the Maze could only sigh helplessly.

Unless they can be led into the maze.

But then the difficulty would no longer be in bringing people here, but in explaining this principle to the heartbroken boy in front of him.

Let's agree to it for now and stabilize this trade route first.

After a while, Lance's gaze swept over the money pouch tied to Bell's waist, and he pointed to the money pouch.

After a moment of stunned silence, Bell immediately untied the money pouch and presented it with both hands.

Lance weighed the purse in his hand; it was very light, and when he opened it, he found very few gold coins, mostly silver and copper coins.

After rummaging through the pouch for a while, Lance picked out a gold coin and then threw the pouch back.

Bell hurriedly caught the money bag and looked at Lance with disbelief:

"Is this all the money you need?"

Lance flicked the gold coin into the air, let it spin several times, then grabbed it in his hand and nodded to Bell.

Almost instantly, tears welled up in Bell's eyes.

He lowered his head, gritting his teeth and trying his best to control his emotions, but he still kept trembling and sobbing softly.

"As far back as I can remember, Green and Ollie have always been by my side..."

"I've asked so many adventurers... but I really don't have that much money..."

"Thank you, sir... really, thank you..."

......

Lance took some time to go home, brought the bow and arrows to Martin, and told him about Bell.

After hearing what had happened, Martin sighed, "A pitiful man."

"Have you ever encountered raiders?" Lance asked. "What kind of people are they?"

"Robbers, bandits, outlaws," Martin said with indignation.

"These insignificant guys specifically target lone or weak adventurers, and they'll definitely kill them to cover their tracks afterward."

Do they only pick on the weak?

That's something we can take advantage of.

However, this matter needs to be put on hold for a while; there are more important things to do right now.

The renovation of their own maze went very smoothly.

It's time to continue exploring the third level of the Starfall Maze.