40. Salt Fields - What the Hell Did Dennis See...? Is This Place Cursed?
I shook off the creepy feeling as best I could and slipped into my room.
Roughly washed up and flopped onto the bed.
-Thud
"Gotta monitor the gallery reactions."
With the strategy contest boosting Variant appearance rates quite a bit, the gallery was bound to be buzzing.
Variant Appearance Rate LV. 1 → 4
I'd dumped a ton of points into it, so there should be some serious changes. As levels go up, the experience bar gets bigger and leveling gets harder, so the later you invest points, the more exponentially the stats spike.
Meaning the gap between 1 point and 4 isn't just a simple 4x boost—it could be dozens of times higher in reality.
The downside? Variant appearance rates don't really affect the experience I get from tickets.
"Tch… Maybe pumping points into tickets and more dungeons would've been smarter…."
That would've been better for my experience gain and the shelter's resources overall.
Variants do give more experience than regular monsters, sure, but if I'd sunk those points into expanding dungeons instead, I could've doubled the capacity or more.
'And naturally, my experience intake would've doubled too.'
Still, stacking up Variant materials in my inventory is a win.
Yeah, my inventory was slowly filling with inner cores.
When explorers exit, a tiny fraction of their dungeon experience and loot gets forwarded to me.
The amount and what loot drops seems random.
For the record, it feels like the loot gets copied from their rewards rather than stolen from their share.
'Otherwise the gallery would've rioted….'
Like this, for example…
And so on…
If my one precious inner core from hours of farming vanished into someone else's inventory? Yeah, I'd lose my shit too.
Anyway… time to check the real gallery situation.
Isekai Survival Gallery
Reactions to the Variant appearance rate boost seem pretty solid.
Stuff that used to take crazy luck to find is now commonplace.
Inner core prices have dipped with the influx, but for explorers it's whatever, and shelter-wide it's a net positive.
"If prices keep falling, even common folk might snag sugar someday."
Most shelter citizens eat to survive, not for taste. I wanna give 'em back the joy of food first.
If they can eat properly, the shelter's happiness index might tick up a bit.
From what I've pieced together, the shelter's got tons of issues.
Food shortages are obvious, everyone's on edge from future anxiety.
The only resource dungeons are mobbed and tapped out anyway.
Biggest problem? The shelter itself.
Being cooped up drives massive stress.
That's why Slime Hill tickets fly despite being low-level—they're popular for the environment. Weak, non-threatening monsters and peaceful meadows make it a perfect resort spot.
Sometimes posts like this pop up.
Posts like these really drive home that people need more than survival resources—they need places to rest their souls too.
"Next one's gotta be a park or resort, no question."
Back on Earth, I doomscrolled endless pics of spots like that.
'Time to make a proper vacation paradise.'
I'll handle terrain and concepts; the dwarf brothers'll build it.
Anyway, in about three months—two if fast—the ticket dungeons should fully replace shelter ones.
'Nah, definitely will.'
Dunno about other transmigrators, but my experience setup is ridiculously efficient.
Level-ups bloat the bar, but scaling dungeons with points scales my intake too.
I'll fix the shelter's resource woes and depression epidemic with my power.
At least make the places around me feel alive.
'No resource shortages means no excuses to boot people out under 'tax' pretenses.'
Normalize the shelter bit by bit.
A few days later, I pinged Granite Fist about the salt fields.
Threw on a mask and cloak, ripped a ticket, and headed to the salt fields.
"Hm! You're here. Whaddya think, Dungeon Master? Big enough for hundreds like you wanted."
"Whoa… the scale is insane?"
How to put it… I couldn't even see the end from here.
I knew from the blueprints and dungeon tweaks for digging pits and leveling, but the size was monstrous. Way bigger than a soccer field.
"Even with our magic, it'd normally take half a year, but your powers handled the grunt work—site prep, seawater intakes, reservoirs—so we pulled it off."
"Still… impressive as hell."
Genuine awe. Even without the earthworks, finishing that massive scale so quick was nuts.
"Not that impressive. Dividing salt beds, piling dikes—anyone can do it. Drains and efficient paths took some skill, but nothing special for dwarves or even regular engineers."
"Hmm… yeah, sounds like mostly manual labor after all?"
"Aye… For max efficiency, you need laborers for the busywork."
Laborers… means extra tickets per head, but looking at my future plans, more hands are essential.
'Supplies jobs to the shelter too—win-win?'
Guess I'll lean on Joodak for that.
"Anyway, good work."
"Just earning our keep. More tweaks needed, but as salt fields? Solid."
We headed to the evaporation zone and harvested salt.
I popped a crystal in my mouth.
"Salty…."
"'Course it is. Congrats—you've changed the shelter again."
Time to report to Joodak-noona. Salt fields are go.
A pitch-black room, lights out.
A figure rolling around on the bed like always.
Evangeline, finally catching a break after the Variant surge kept the Magic Tower hectic.
Message received.
"…Who?"
"Ah, completed huh?"
Looks like things are about to get busy again.