Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 83

Dungeon Journal – Episode 84

# 84

Dungeon Journal

Episode 84

Each time Yoon-hee’s lips moved, a flicker of light appeared in the air before quickly fading. But she didn’t give up, repeatedly moving her lips and muttering something that sounded like a spell.

“Yoon-hee!”

How much time had passed? Kim Jin-woo appeared, his face etched with anger.

Seeing him, she lowered her head in despair. Even then, a light flashed in the air before vanishing.

“What are you doing!”

Kim Jin-woo, who had rarely shown anger despite their shared predicament, now wore a distorted expression. She chose silence rather than offering him excuses.

“Considering our situation, I’ve been lenient until now, but I need to know. What were you trying to do, and what are you hiding?”

Yoon-hee trembled like a small bird at his unusually cold tone. Normally, such a display would have made him relent and back down. But not this time.

“I know you’ve regained your senses. Stop pretending to be mute and try to explain yourself.”

His voice was as cold as dripping water. She looked up at him, then lowered her head again.

“Why did you try to open a portal without saying a word?”

Kim Jin-woo, with his arms crossed, seemed determined to get an answer. He waited patiently for her to speak.

“…Can’t.”

Finally, he succeeded in opening Yoon-hee’s mouth, which had been closed for so long. But her voice was so weak it was barely audible, so he narrowed his eyes and leaned closer.

“Say it again. What did you say?”

“I…”

Perhaps because she had been living like a mute for so long, her voice was hoarse and rough, and her pronunciation was slurred, like a drunkard’s rambling.

“If I stay here…”

Moreover, she seemed unaccustomed to speaking to someone, her voice fading away, making it difficult to understand.

But he simply waited for her next words, without urging or getting annoyed.

“It won’t work.”

He waited a little longer for her to elaborate, but she seemed to have exhausted all her energy with that simple phrase, closing her eyes tightly and gasping for breath.

“Why? Can’t you stay here?”

He asked again, unable to understand the meaning of her words. But she didn’t open her mouth again. Instead, the familiar message appeared:

[Yoon-hee has repeatedly attempted to open a portal to the Party Hall. However, the portal cannot be opened without the Baron’s permission.]

[Do you want to allow the portal connection?]

Kim Jin-woo looked at her quietly and said,

“Allow it.”

At that moment, a door burst open in the air. Yoon-hee, as if she had been waiting for it, crossed through the portal without looking back. And Kim Jin-woo followed her.

“Ah…”

Seeing Kim Jin-woo following her to the Party Hall, she let out a suppressed groan, looking both afraid and worried. Seeing her inscrutable expression, Kim Jin-woo said,

“I allowed you to open the portal because you said you shouldn’t be in my labyrinth [a network of underground tunnels and chambers]. So tell me now. What’s going on?”

Having sworn a feudal oath [a pledge of loyalty and service] and signed a regency contract [an agreement granting someone temporary rule], she could no longer escape him. Nevertheless, he wanted to hear from her own mouth why she was trying to escape Naga’s Fortress.

“Is it a difficult question? Then let’s start with something easy.”

Even if she had regained her voice, she wasn’t a normal person. It had taken Kim Jin-woo himself a long time to return to the surface and learn to speak and act like other people. So he tried to speak to her calmly and continuously.

“Do you recognize who I am?”

Yoon-hee nodded. He asked again.

“Then where is this?”

“My labyrinth…”

Her voice was still difficult to understand, but the fact that she answered was important.

“Good. Very good. What’s your name?”

“Yoon-hee.”

“Where were you?”

“Deep underground.”

“The name of the labyrinth.”

“…”

Starting with what he already knew and asking various questions, her pronunciation gradually became clearer.

“Don’t you remember, or don’t you want to answer?”

“Ugh…”

“Okay, let’s skip that. What were you doing before you met me?”

Kim Jin-woo quickly changed the subject when he saw signs of her becoming hysterical again. But her reaction was strange.

Most Dungeon Babies [children born and raised in dungeons] born and raised in the underground worked as tunnellers. Opening passages in the labyrinth, digging new tunnels to the enemy’s labyrinth during wars, or filling in tunnels dug by the enemy’s tunnellers was what Dungeon Babies did before they went above ground.

But she kept her mouth shut and refused to answer.

“What you were doing.”

Under normal circumstances, he would have asked a different question. But he instinctively knew that her past was related to the current situation. So he asked her the same question over and over in the same tone, even as she let out suppressed groans.

“What you were doing.”

“Kkeuek.”

Her face turned blue as if someone was choking her. She looked like she was about to collapse, not even breathing.

“Yoon-hee, this is your labyrinth. No one can harm you here. Not even me.”

Kim Jin-woo tried to reassure her with calm words, but her complexion grew paler with each passing moment.

“Yoon-hee!”

[The unique ability of the Underground Aristocracy, ‘Dignity of a Lower Aristocrat,’ has been activated.]

[The opponent resists the pressure effect with all their might.]

[Surprisingly, the opponent has partially succeeded in resisting the Dignity of a Lower Aristocrat. A limited pressure effect has occurred. The opponent will waver between fear and wariness of you.]

[The limited pressure effect is causing the opponent great confusion.]

Seeing that she was about to suffocate if left alone, Kim Jin-woo even used the ability of the aristocracy. But he failed to calm her down. Instead, she trembled even more violently than before, terrified.

[The opponent shakes off the pressure effect.]

[The opponent, having attempted unreasonable resistance, momentarily experiences a paralysis of thought.]

“Damn it!”

She looked like she was about to stop breathing at any moment. He rushed over and tapped her on the back. But at that moment, a message appeared before his eyes.

[The Parasite senses danger.]

[The Parasite’s special ability, ‘Demon Eye,’ has been activated.]

The Parasite’s sensing ability, which had kept him alive through countless crises, activated. So he threw himself forward without thinking.

In the slowed-down world, he saw darkness rising up.

As if moving the night itself, an indigo darkness, out of place in the underground, swallowed the spot where he had been just a moment ago.

Caught off guard by the sudden attack, his whole body was on alert, his eyes sharply scanning the surroundings. He saw Yoon-hee looking at him from beyond the darkness.

Her jet-black eyes had turned as if blood was dripping from them, staring at him. It wasn’t just her eyes that had changed. Between her pale lips, which were moving slightly, he saw sharp fangs.

The moment Kim Jin-woo saw those eerie eyes and fangs, he knew why she couldn’t leave the underground.

“A hybrid?”

Yoon-hee, she wasn’t purely human.

***

There were no further attacks. The effect of the Demon Eye disappeared, and the darkness that had lingered in the air vanished without a trace.

And Yoon-hee, with her hazy black eyes instead of eerie bloodshot eyes, was blankly looking at him.

She seemed to realize what she had done belatedly, opening her mouth wide before fainting.

It seemed to be a side effect of forcibly shaking off the pressure effect.

“Yoon-hee, Yoon-hee.”

Kim Jin-woo looked at Yoon-hee and called her name softly.

“Poor Yoon-hee.”

Kim Jin-woo sighed once again.

***

Kim Jin-woo couldn’t leave the unconscious Yoon-hee alone, so he gently picked her up.

He was reluctant to hold her after the sudden attack, but he tried to shake off those thoughts. After all, what had just happened was an accident he had caused, a seizure caused by a clumsy pressure effect.

In fact, he hadn’t seen any battle start messages except for the Parasite’s warning.

If she had really intended to attack him, the Parasite’s message would have been accompanied by a battle message.

‘Master!’

“Master!”

Angela and Dominique, who had been watching the situation from beyond the portal, rushed over, making a fuss.

“Ah, Angela. Please take care of Yoon-hee.”

He roughly matched their fuss and handed Yoon-hee over as if passing her on, his face tired. Angela lifted Yoon-hee roughly with a dissatisfied look, then disappeared with heavy footsteps.

‘What happened?’

“I don’t know yet. I’ve only just found out why Yoon-hee stayed in the underground.”

He still didn’t know why Yoon-hee had said that he shouldn’t stay in Naga’s Fortress.

“I’m going to rest, so don’t call me unless it’s urgent.”

Dominique pursed her lips at his face, which was heavily marked with fatigue, then closed them. She seemed to think it would be better to leave him alone now.

***

It wasn’t difficult to know that Yoon-hee had regained consciousness. It was because a message popped up saying that she had tried to open the portal again, just like before.

This time, he didn’t think for long and allowed the portal to open. He had only brought her with him because he couldn’t leave her alone in the Party Hall while she was unconscious, and he had no intention of forcibly detaining her in Naga’s Fortress.

“Portal.”

Kim Jin-woo opened the portal and crossed over to the Party Hall, following her. He spoke softly, seeing Yoon-hee startled by his appearance.

“What are you so afraid of that you’re trying to escape the fortress? What’s the difference between here and the fortress? If we’re talking about safety, isn’t the fortress safer than here?”

He asked carefully, seeing her relatively calm complexion.

“It’s not that…”

She was much more docile than before. She seemed to be concerned about the fact that she had almost caused a major accident.

“Speak. I’m not going to let it go today.”

With those words, he sat casually on the throne of the Party Hall and looked down at her.

“Instead, I won’t ask unnecessary questions. All I want to know is what you did before you met me, how you ended up in the auction house, and why you dislike Naga’s Fortress so much. I only need to know these three things.”

Yoon-hee hesitated and opened her mouth at his words, which showed a firm determination not to let it go this time.

“My mother…”

She opened her mouth but couldn’t continue for a long time, finally speaking with a resigned expression.

“My mother is the wife of the Count of the 11th floor.”

Kim Jin-woo froze at her unexpected words.

“I am the daughter of Dinarión, the ‘Nightmare Lord’ of the 11th floor, and…”

He tried to sort out his mind, which was in complete chaos, but she continued to speak.

“A loser pushed out of the succession competition.”

Her completely resigned tone was calm, but its impact was by no means small. Angela, who had been barely holding back a scream, groaned, and Dominique turned pale.

“My fate would have been to lose and be deprived of everything as a price for defeat, sold off to the auction house like an animal, abused by some aristocrat, and die as an underground person.”

She looked straight at Kim Jin-woo’s eyes for the first time, without avoiding them.

“But you changed my fate again.”

Yoon-hee’s eyes were shining more than ever as she said that.

“And you have changed your own destiny as well.”

“What does that mean?”

Kim Jin-woo, who had regained his composure after a long time, frowned and asked. Instead of answering, she strode closer and bent down.

“Eup.”

Surprised by her sudden action of kissing his instep, he unknowingly pulled his foot back, but she raised her head and whispered softly.

“You are my master, and my lost right of succession is also yours.”