Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 53

Dungeon Journal-53

# 53

Dungeon Journal

Chapter 54

“Make way for the Baron! Clear the path!”

“You fools! Get out of the way!”

The sight of the boisterous, yellow boars shouting at the top of their lungs was so absurd it was almost as if they had been Kim Jin-woo’s subordinates from the start.

“Is it because of the seal, or are these guys just weird…?”

He said, dumbfounded, and Angela giggled beside him.

“You scoundrels! I sent you to find prey, and you’ve become attached to them!”

Eventually, the giant boar, the chieftain, couldn’t stand it any longer and pushed through the ranks.

Twice the size of the other boars, with long, sharp tusks like spears, and four eyes as big as marbles, he had the presence of a true leader.

As the chieftain scolded them, the two boars flinched and began to make excuses.

“It’s not like that! A noble from the Depths has arrived!”

As the two boars spoke in unison, the chieftain rolled his four eyes and examined Kim Jin-woo and his party.

[He’s stronger than I thought. It’s hard to believe he’s only from the 8th floor.]

Angela warned him subtly.

[I know.]

But Kim Jin-woo had already sensed the chieftain boar’s power even before Angela’s warning.

[The Baron’s unique ability, ‘Authority of a Minor Noble,’ has been activated.]

[Any being with intelligence cannot defy this authority. However, if the opponent is stronger than the Baron himself, they may target the seal and attack.]

[Your charisma is not yet sufficient to affect all beings.]

[The chieftain of the Great Tusk Boar tribe resists the authority of the seal. However, he has not completely succeeded in resisting. The chieftain is slightly intimidated.]

The authority of the Nether Noble, which had completely subdued the two boars, did not work on the chieftain boar.

“What brings a noble like you to this place? I’ve never heard of nobles from the Depths leaving their territory.”

Although his voice was somewhat subdued compared to when he was scolding, the chieftain boar clearly voiced his question.

“I’m just passing through. I’m heading to the 7th floor, and as you said, I’m new to the 8th floor, so I asked your subordinates to guide me.”

The chieftain boar tilted his large head, puzzled by his words.

“Does a noble have business going up? There’s nothing special on the 7th floor.”

“That’s a personal matter that I can’t discuss.”

Kim Jin-woo was confident. Although the opponent outnumbered them, breaking through the boar herd would be no problem for the current party.

“Hmm…”

The chieftain boar pondered Kim Jin-woo’s words for a while before finally speaking.

“Do you know what the situation is like on the 8th floor?”

“How would I know? I clearly said I’m new to the 8th floor.”

“I see. It’s unfortunate, but you should turn back.”

“Are you going to stop me?”

Kim Jin-woo growled, emitting a blue light. The chieftain boar stepped back at the force and shook his head, snorting.

“Geez, you’re impatient. I’m not saying I’m stopping you, but the situation on the 8th floor is a bit… complicated.”

As if there was a reason, he asked for an explanation, and the two boars beside him cautiously answered.

“The 8th floor is at war right now. I think the chieftain is worried that a noble like you might get caught up in it.”

“War?”

Kim Jin-woo frowned at the two boars’ words.

“Just as you heard. The situation on the 8th floor is so chaotic right now that it won’t be easy for you to pass through.”

This was another unexpected situation, and as he made a troubled face, the chieftain boar flared his nostrils and asked.

“Is it urgent?”

“It’s urgent in a way, and not in another, but I don’t want to turn back.”

At his words, the chieftain boar narrowed his four eyes and sized up Kim Jin-woo.

“Actually, to be honest, it’s not that there’s no way to pass through the 8th floor at all.”

“Get to the point. If you have a proposal, make it now.”

Seeing his frowning face, the chieftain boar quickly made a suggestion.

“I’ll help you pass through the 8th floor as quickly as possible, so help me.”

“My business isn’t on the 8th floor. The situation isn’t good for me to stay here long.”

“It doesn’t have to be now. Visit me when you’re done with your business on the 7th floor. I’ll tell you my request then.”

“Haven’t you considered that that would be more troublesome?”

“You can refuse if you don’t like it after hearing it.”

At the chieftain boar’s words, Kim Jin-woo looked at his party for a moment and nodded.

“It’s not a bad offer. But I don’t know what you’ll get out of it.”

“That’s my business, so just visit me later, noble one.”

Since they weren’t in a position to worry about each other’s circumstances, Kim Jin-woo shrugged.

“Then let’s do that.”

“Good, the deal is made.”

***

“Ugh.”

Kim Jin-woo groaned, rubbing his back. Before his eyes was the passage connecting the 8th and 7th floors.

“Then, since I’ve kept my promise, I’ll be on my way.”

At the words of the Hero-class boar, who had guided him, Kim Jin-woo waved his hand, telling him he had done well. The boar bowed to him once more and shouted loudly.

“Let’s go, you lazy pigs!”

The boars, who had turned gray as if they had been covered in all the dust of the Netherworld, were lying on the ground, panting with their tongues out, but jumped up at the head boar’s words.

As if they had regained their energy in a short time, the boars squealed and soon disappeared into the distance.

“I guess you could say they’re boar-like. It was a really barbaric method.”

Angela said, looking at the disappearing boars with a rare look of disgust.

“Kkeueung.”

Kim Jin-woo groaned, his face showing that he 100 percent agreed with her words.

He had thought that there might be some clever trick to passing through the 8th floor, which was in the middle of a war, but the herd of boars carrying Kim Jin-woo’s party had simply charged madly across the 8th floor.

They charged so recklessly that even the creatures engaged in a bloody battle were stunned and made way for them. It was truly a demonstration of the value of a boar that had received its payment in advance.

“It seems that boars aren’t very good mounts.”

“Don’t even mention it. They shook so much that I feel like I’ve lost half of my precious body.”

As Kim Jin-woo complained, Woosuh said, and indeed, his gelatinous body was less than half the size it had been when they first set out.

“We should take comfort in the fact that we arrived quickly thanks to them.”

He watched as his party shuddered, recalling the days of frantic running, and ordered Woosuh to scout the situation beyond the passage.

“It’s quiet.”

“You said that before we came up to the 8th floor.”

“This time, I sent it out a little further to scout. I’m sure of it.”

At Woosuh’s words, asking him to trust him this time, Kim Jin-woo cautiously stepped onto the 7th floor.

The peculiar darkness and floating sensation that he had felt when passing through the passage soon disappeared, and he was finally able to set foot on the 7th floor.

And a day later, Kim Jin-woo and his party had to fight against the endless waves of creatures.

[Stealth cannot be activated during combat.]

Even if he tried to hide, the battle never ended, so he couldn’t even use his stealth ability.

“Heop!”

“Kieeeeek!”

Kim Jin-woo, whose eyes had turned bloodshot, slammed his knee into the head of a charging creature and briefly glanced around to assess the situation.

Woosuh was fighting well, driving the creatures back and forth, as if the claim that he was immune to physical attacks was not a lie, and Angela and Yoon-hee were also showing more strength than expected.

“Ugh, these guys are completely crazy, aren’t they?”

Kim Jin-woo nodded at Woosuh’s boisterous voice. He felt a sense of unease at the sight of the creatures, which were far more ferocious than what he would expect on the 7th floor.

“Done!”

But because the party was so formidable, even those ferocious creatures were soon covered in blood and lying on the floor.

“Is the upper floor always like this?”

Woosuh, whose body was much smaller than when he first entered the 7th floor, stuck to the floor and spoke, his face full of exhaustion.

“That can’t be. If we fought like this every day, there wouldn’t be any labyrinths left.”

Kim Jin-woo said, looking at the corpses of the creatures scattered around.

He didn’t know how many battles it had been already. Except for the first day he had set foot on the 7th floor, it had been a continuous series of battles. Even with Angela, who could sense the presence of living beings in advance and warn them, they couldn’t avoid the battles. It was because the creatures on the 7th floor were all rampaging madly.

“What’s really going on? If I only looked at what’s happening now, I’d believe that the 7th floor is a more terrible place than the Depths [lower levels of the dungeon].”

Angela shook her head and lamented, taking a long-awaited break. But Kim Jin-woo didn’t answer her, instead trying to quietly assess the situation. In fact, it wasn’t as if he had no idea what was going on.

If there had been a major change in the world beneath the earth, it would be because of the thousands of explorers who had entered the Netherworld to find the labyrinth on the 4th floor.

He couldn’t know what kind of impact the explorers had had, but otherwise, such chaos couldn’t have broken out across all floors.

He regretted not asking why the 8th floor was caught up in the war. But at the time, he had thought it was just a common power struggle, so he couldn’t help it.

“Hmm?”

Kim Jin-woo, who had organized his thoughts, stopped trying to activate his stealth ability and looked around. But for some reason, his expression was not good.

“Where’s Yoon-hee?”

Yoon-hee, who had been exchanging blows with the creatures right next to him until just now, was nowhere to be seen.

At his words, Angela looked around and shook her head.

“She’s not here. There are many living beings in this area, but there’s no sign of Yoon-hee.”

“Look again. She can’t be gone.”

This time, Angela put a lot of effort into searching the area. But Yoon-hee was still nowhere to be seen.

“She’s not here. Really. She’s really not in this area.”

Kim Jin-woo frowned at her words.

“Angela, can’t you really sense Yoon-hee’s presence in this area?”

“No, she’s not here. She’s really not here.”

“I have also checked, but I could not find even her shadow.”

Woosuh, who was gathering and sticking together the mass of slime that was wriggling closer, expressed his agreement with Angela’s opinion.

“Then what the hell…?”

He frowned deeply and was about to speak, but then he froze.

[The 7th floor map has been updated.]

[A portion of the hidden area of the 7th floor map has been revealed.]

Looking at the message that appeared before his eyes, he finally groaned as he looked at the map that was spread out semi-transparently in the corner of his vision.

A portion of the 7th floor map, far from the straight path that the party had taken, was revealed. The portion of the 7th floor map that would normally have remained black was revealed.

The area of the map that had sprouted in the middle of the completely black map, as if a hole had been made, was expanding its area here and there with a terribly slow pace.

Kim Jin-woo frowned, forming a hypothesis.

There was only one case that could explain the current situation.

That day when he was wandering around the entrance to the Netherworld and was unexpectedly transported to the 9th floor in one go, he had the same experience as now. And that day, he had obtained Naga’s Labyrinth.

“Hmm…”

His mind began to race quickly.

Professor Baek had said that the first unowned labyrinth would be on the 7th floor. Because a labyrinth was later discovered on the 4th floor, he judged that information to be incorrect.

But if the information had not been wrong from the beginning, if the labyrinth had been on the 7th floor from the beginning and not on the 4th floor, then he could understand all of this situation.

But it was too coincidental that Yoon-hee had been drawn to the labyrinth and disappeared.

How many coincidences would have to overlap for Yoon-hee to be drawn to the labyrinth? It didn’t make sense that two dungeon babies, including himself, had been drawn to the labyrinth.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t stop his thoughts from flowing in one direction.

“Could it be?”

Even while he was lost in thought, the map continued to be updated. And at some point, the map stopped changing.

Kim Jin-woo looked at the semi-transparent map floating in the air and suddenly reached out his hand. He waved his hand here and there as if groping in the air, and then he connected a line in the air with both hands.

The line he connected was pointing to the location of something that had just stopped moving, beyond the unknown area of the map that had not yet been revealed and was marked in black.

He moved his gaze along the line and stopped. And then he quietly called Angela and Woosuh.

“I found Yoon-hee.”