Dungeon Maker

Chapter 155: Preparation (3)

Yong-ho jumped more than twenty meters with just one foot roll. He jumped so high that it seemed like he was flying.

Its principle was simple. The moment he kicked off the ground, the black mana released from his legs propelled him off the ground strongly.

Landing right in front of Catalina, he reached out and hugged her waist. Once again, using black mana, he stood in front of Gusion this time.

His action was completely different from showing off his Herculean power.

Only the one who could use black mana freely could make such a gentle jump.

Moreover, Yong-ho performed the same tricks as before with the mana of his dungeon spirit he brought out through Brigada, not his own mana.

“Hey, you can do something extraordinary. You seem to have become too strong suddenly, don’t you?” Said Gusion, laughing loudly.

Snorting at him, he let go of Catalina. Then he flopped down across from Gusion.

“Stop eating, man. I’ve brought it here for Catalina. Are you going to eat it all?”

“Hey, don’t blame me for eating. Actually, I’ve got one left for her. I know you are the King of Greed, so don’t be mean to me.”

They exchanged barbed words, but they just did it jokingly. Yong-ho looked at the chicken box with a bit of regret on his face.

Kaiwan was recuperating in the recovery room of the arena. It was natural that she was still in bed because she was injured heavily during her fight with Embrio.

“Don’t worry. Even those who were battered by you are up and running once they are discharged from the recovery room. You can see them next time,” said Kaiwan.

“That’s good.”

After replying quickly, Yong-ho caught his breath. After trying to forget her smile that kept popping up in his mind, he faced Gusion.

Yong-ho could see his smiling face, which was so familiar to him by now, but at the same time, he could see his face, who was crying and begging. Of course, his second image was an illusion. It was from the memory that he had read from Mammon’s legacy in the human world.

Mammon didn’t tell him everything, saying he wasn’t qualified yet. Mammon also said 12 Spirits of the House of Mammon, such as Gusion and Scathach, were not ready yet, but he didn’t tell Yong-ho the truth about his own death.

But it didn’t mean that there were no clues at all. Yong-ho could create a single picture, though incomplete, by putting together the fragments one by one.

Mammon didn’t share his last moment with the 12 Spirits.

Yong-ho could not know what caused Mammon’s death, but he was certain they were not with him during his last moment.

At that time, Gusion cried and begged Mammon to allow him to stay with the master until his last moment.

Sitri was looking up to the sky, hugging Elune who was dying.

Scathach asked Yong-ho to fight with his dungeon spirits all the time.

And Mammon went alone, leaving all of them behind.

Mammon died alone.

Then, who and what killed him?

Why was there no record of his death in history?

There was one more question.

Why do Mammon’s 12 Spirits hide the truth from Yong-ho?

What were the ‘qualifications’ Mammon mentioned?

‘Gusion wants to tell me about it,’ Yong-ho thought to himself.

He could feel it. Aamon, Scathach, and Sitri hid the secret, but for different reasons.

Gusion was holding the urge to tell.

On the other hand, Aamon and Scathach didn’t want to talk from the beginning.

Why were they divided about it?

Yong-ho remembered Mammon’s words, ‘I have always been faithful to my desires. Because of that, I do not regret my choice.’

That was what Mammon said to him.

At first, Yong-ho thought he said it to express his satisfaction. But he came to think differently about it when he reflected on it more. He felt like Mammon was drawing a line between himself and Yong-ho.

‘I hope you can do the same, too.’

‘Go your way Act according to your desires.’

‘Don’t be bound by Mammon himself.’

Yong-ho blinked.

At that moment, Gusion, in reality, not in his memory, was looking at him anxiously and said, “Little master? Are you feeling ill? Were the wounds you got from Embrio infected?”

“No, I’m a little tired.”

“I understand. You broke through three floors at once. There were almost very few who challenged the floor recklessly like you after the 10th floor. Kaiwan lost on and on, but finally, she continued to challenge persistently and climbed it.”

There were seven floors for Yong-ho to challenge before the 20th floor, where Kaiwan lost. Considering the corresponding increase in difficulty, it seemed that he could reach the 19th floor without much difficulty.

“Come to think of it...”

Suddenly, he said something that came to his mind, so he asked Gusion, “Is there any other floor where they issue a summons on the way to the 19th floor?”

Gusion answered, “Well, I can’t guarantee, but you might get one because you will challenge the floor after the 10th floor. Even if they issue a summons, it’s not difficult to get you one. By the way, why do you need a summons? Are you going to bring Kaiwan to do something?”

Gusion accurately read his mind. Yong-ho nodded.

In fact, Like Gusion pointed out, Yong-ho planned to summon Kaiwan if he could obtain a summons.

“Well, I want to experiment with one thing.”

So, he needed Kaiwan only. The situation could be a little different if another previous master of the House of Mammon appeared on his way to the 19th floor, but right now, he couldn’t think of any other candidate than Kaiwan.

Nodding slowly at his earnest answer, Gusion asked, looking back at Aamon, the flames of the red lotus next to him, “Aamon, is it true that the anguish of our little master is getting stronger?”

[It’s getting stronger. But... it’s a little bit different. It is greed, not lust.]

[Of course, it doesn’t mean that there is no lust in it at all...]

At that moment, Yong-ho shook his hand wildly and stopped Aamon from talking more.

Somehow, it seemed that Catalina was making a sullen expression behind his back.

Why did Gusion, who usually never cracked a joke, mention it in a situation like this and put him on the spot?

Yong-ho, sighing at Aamon’s gentle laugh, said to Gusion, “Deliver the chicken to Kaiwan well with my best regards. Let me go back.”

He stood up. Gusion saw him off in person.

***

“I see. That’s why you said you needed my approval.”

It was really very late when Yong-ho left the arena, but instead of going to the demon king’s room, Yong-ho headed to Burgrim’s workshop because he knew well that Burgrim was looking forward to seeing him.

On top of Burgrim’s workbench was a whole bone almost the size of Catalina. It was part of the ribs of the Bone Dragon.

The Bone Dragon’s bone was definitely a great material. It was hard and light, and it had strong magical energy inside it.

Nonetheless, it was bone, not metal.

Its processing was not smooth. It was impossible to melt it like metal then harden it to reshape it.

The only way to process a dragon’s bones was to ‘drill’ it.

If one ground a bone to make a knife, it was inevitable to discard some bones. And it was almost impossible to utilize all the discarded bones.

Of course, dragon bones were also valuable as a magic catalyst, so they were not discarded forever. But the bones required lots of waste in the process of making tools.

That was why Burgrim waited for Yong-ho. Only after receiving a specific order and getting his permission to use the amount of bone could Burgrim start working on.

Desire was flaring up in Burgrim’s eyes. His eyes were glittering as strongly as when he was longing for the evolution of mana.

Yong-ho thought to himself, ‘Is it similar to the situation where he obtained an incredible toy in his hand?’

Yong-ho could not know it. He just giggled at Burgrim and gave him a specific order.

Aside from making the “dragon soldiers”, which could be called high-level skeletons, he had no specific plan about how to use the bones, so he decided to provide Burgrim only one large fang and a few small bones. He thought this would be enough for Burgrim to make weapons and armor for his dungeon spirits.

Burgrim started working right away. It seemed that he had no intention of taking a break until he produced the results.

Catalina, who came out on the hallway, said with admiration, “He always seems to be passionate whenever I see him.”

“Yeah. He’s completely different from when I saw him the first time, right?”

She nodded. When Yong-ho first came to the House of Mammon, Burgrim was languid with his eyes drooping.

It wasn’t just Burgrim that changed. All the dungeon spirits of the House of Mammon have changed since then.

“Butler Eligos has changed a lot too,” she said with mixed feelings.

At that moment, Yong-ho chuckled because he recalled the bleak House of Mammon when he saw it first.

Jon and Ron, the first dungeon spirits that he bought at the Dungeon Market, were no longer just goblins. It had been a long time since they surpassed ordinary goblins not only in appearance but also in their abilities. Even if they fight ogres even now, they were highly likely to win.

Heading to the demon king’s room with Catalina, he chatted with her. There were almost no dungeon spirits in the hallway because it was so late at night.

When they finally reached the room, he heard Lucia’s voice.

[Master, it’s deep at night.]

[You have to take a rest now.]

Yong-ho knitted his brows, while Lucia kept talking.

[Pit-a-pat]

[Lubb-dupp]

[This time, let me count from one to ten... Uh?]

[Our connection is getting lost...]

[Master?!]

[When did you get this skill?]

[I’ll hate you if you disconnect the line with me...]

Lucia, which was interrupted in the middle of her talking, completely disappeared in the end.

Freed from her connection, Yong-ho reached out to Catalina, who opened her eyes wide, not knowing what happened.

“Let’s go. We’re going to be busy tomorrow. Time for rest now.”

That was true. Tomorrow he was going to summon dragon soldiers and evolve dungeon spirits including Skull. Probably, he would use more mana tomorrow than today.

Catalina blinked once. She looked back at her room at the entrance of the demon king’s room and smiled differently. Then she said warmly to him, who made an awkward expression, “Sure, master.”

She held his hands, then naturally stepped into the room of the demon king.

***

Unlike the southern area where peace was restored, the northern area was on fire.

It was the chaos caused by Embrio’s death.

The eastern army struck the northern army fiercely. Some of the northern soldiers fought a deadly battle, while others gave up too easily, surrendering to the eastern army.

Embrio’s dungeon was also among those that were ruined and burnt down.

It was a small and insignificant dungeon. For this reason, few of the northern army knew that the dungeon burning right now before their eyes was Embrio’s.

A wolf went out of the burning dungeon. The wolf came out to fulfill his order that he gave before leaving the dungeon.

The leader who led the herd of wolves was killed.

However, the leader’s members weren’t killed altogether just because their leader was killed.

If a new leader appeared, they could continue to survive as long as they wanted.

The wolf carrying Embrio’s legacy suddenly left the northern area.

The wolf headed south to join the killed leader’s runaway soldiers, who had followed him.

The wolf was the new leader that Embrio had nominated as the new leader just before his death. It was the wolf that Emrbio recognized as the king.

The moonlight was cloudy. The wolf ran through the dark night.