Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 130

Dungeon Chronicle – Episode 131

# 131

Dungeon Chronicle

Dominic, who had vehemently opposed the idea, arguing that in the worst-case scenario, they might draw an overwhelming enemy force into the fortress, was eventually persuaded.

Kim Jin-woo’s logic – that holding out alone would be impossible once all the other labyrinths were destroyed and the enemies began their concentrated attacks – won him over.

His point, that it was better to take risks and move while they still had the strength to gather, rather than being trapped in a labyrinth and heading towards destruction, was quite valid.

So, Dominic could no longer object.

“Do you think they will truly be grateful to you, Master?”

Although he had accepted their oaths of fealty [formal pledges of loyalty], their loyalty was not a heartfelt submission but a forced subjugation by power.

Saving them would not create loyalty where none existed before.

Nevertheless, he had no choice but to act.

“I can only hope they realize the gravity of the situation.”

They were selfish and greedy labyrinth lords, but they were also highly sensitive to issues related to their survival.

He hoped they would act wisely, driven by their overwhelming desire to survive – no more and no less.

“Portal.”

With a soft murmur, the air split open, and a portal appeared.

“Then, I’ll be off. Take care of the fortress.”

“Please return safely.”

Leaving Dominic’s worried farewell behind, Kim Jin-woo stepped through the gateway. Following him were his hero-grade summons [powerful, high-ranking summoned entities], including Morrigan and Heimdall.

“Under no circumstances are you to allow the enemy to invade until I return!”

The forces that crossed the portal with Kim Jin-woo consisted only of hero-grade summons and the army of the dead.

The Nagas [serpentine humanoids], to prepare for any possible enemy counterattacks, stood guard in front of the gaping portal, forming an impenetrable barrier.

At the same time, the Nagas guarding the fortress entrance had also fully solidified their defenses, ready to face the enemy.

***

Kim Jin-woo and his army were greeted by the labyrinth of the dwarves, on the verge of collapse, as they stepped through the portal.

Malakus and the dwarves had already surrendered most of the labyrinth, including the central passage, to the enemy, barely managing to defend the owner’s room and a few other facilities while fighting a desperate battle.

“The king has come!”

They cheered at the sudden appearance of reinforcements and pushed back the enemies with all their might.

However, the dwarves, already exhausted, had no strength left to even hold their axes, and their soaring morale was matched by their helplessness.

It was the army of the dead, under the command of Valishus and Balzac, that pushed back the enemies in their stead.

The living dead, indistinguishable from monsters in appearance, clashed with the army of the dead, who were already dead but moving.

The dead and the monsters grappled, tearing at each other’s necks and clawing. Flesh flew, and blood spurted, but no screams were heard.

The dwarves, watching the relentless clash of the two sides, who felt no pain, dropped the axes they had been gripping tightly until now.

“This is hell…”

They were completely sickened by the bizarre battle of silently biting and tearing each other apart. Whether the dwarves were sickened or not, the battle continued.

The dead relentlessly attacked the enemies unless their bodies were completely destroyed, and the same was true for the enemies.

However, the tide of the battle slowly began to turn in favor of the dead.

Although fewer in number, the army of the dead was created by Valishus based on the hero-grade summons of the fallen deep-level nobles.

It was only natural that they would exert more power than they had in life, as they were commanded by Balzac, who had evolved into a death knight, and the necromancer Valishus.

In addition, hero-grade summons such as Morrigan, Heimdall, and Ortea wreaked havoc on the battlefield.

The enemies were more tenacious than the dead, but they could not withstand the combined attack of all these forces.

In the end, when the half-day battle was over, not a single one of the thousand enemies was left alive.

In the process, about 50 of the dead were destroyed, but Valishus shamelessly resurrected the corpses of the already dead dwarves to make up for the losses.

Naturally, Malakus and the dwarves protested.

“They, too, would have wanted to avenge their grievances even in death. I have only fulfilled their wishes, so do not resent me.”

Whether Valishus’s insistence worked or not, Malakus did not argue further. Perhaps he did not dare to argue with those who had saved his labyrinth.

In any case, the destruction of his clan and labyrinth would have been inevitable without them.

Kim Jin-woo, knowing Malakus’s way of thinking – which was unlike the beings of the underground who repaid grudges tenfold and quickly forgot favors – decided to save him first.

“I’m sorry, but there’s no time to rest. Repair the damage as quickly as possible and rejoin the battle.”

He urged the dwarves, who were despondent after seeing the half-destroyed labyrinth. Having already heard about the seriousness of the situation, Malakus immediately began to restore the lost forces.

The Down Gem [a valuable resource] he had already obtained from the war with the 10th floor noble alliance was sufficient for the restoration.

He quickly filled the gaps left by the fallen and restored the destroyed labyrinth.

In the meantime, Kim Jin-woo rescued a dozen labyrinths in a row.

As time passed, the losses of the dead grew, and by the time he rescued the last labyrinth, most of them were made up of hastily assembled corpses.

The intense battlefield that even the carefully crafted dead could not withstand, could not possibly be endured by hastily assembled dead.

Naturally, the quality of the dead began to decline as the battle progressed.

Nevertheless, Kim Jin-woo continued to win. The gaps in the dead were more than filled by the newly joined labyrinth forces.

However, this was limited to relatively fortunate labyrinths, and the majority of the labyrinths were still struggling in difficult battles, unable to guarantee their tomorrow.

Moreover, to make matters worse, the enemies began to increase their numbers little by little. The sporadic attacks that had been taking place here and there suddenly became organized, and the scale of the attacks became much larger.

As a result, Kim Jin-woo could no longer carry out hit-and-run tactics through the portal.

Kim Jin-woo, who had failed to notice the sudden increase in the enemy, was almost caught in a counterattack. If Dominic, who was watching the battle situation from beyond the portal, had not pushed the waiting Nagas into the portal, he would have suffered great losses.

“From now on, we will form a front line and continue the battle by pushing back the enemy. It will be a much more difficult and arduous battle than before.”

As he said, the battle was just beginning. As if the previous battles had been mere skirmishes, large-scale battles were taking place all over the 9th floor.

Kim Jin-woo and the Nagas became even busier than before. Kim Jin-woo had to run all over the underground to make up for the relatively weaker forces of the 9th floor army.

However, the situation still showed no signs of improving.

The labyrinth forces that Kim Jin-woo and the Nagas had risked their lives to revive suffered devastating blows, and it was not uncommon for them to leave the front line.

The gaps in the depleted forces were desperately filled by the newly joined labyrinth forces.

“The dwarves have rejoined the battle!”

“We have succeeded in placing the half-human, half-demon labyrinth inside the front line!”

The surviving labyrinth cores were being pushed to their limits. The lost forces were restored with the consumption of massive amounts of Down Gem, and the recruited forces headed back to the battlefield.

Death and birth continued endlessly, and the war showed no signs of ending.

“We have only managed to restore half of the 9th floor, but the consumption of Down Gem is extreme. If we don’t find another way, the Down Gem we obtained as spoils of war will soon run out, and the front line will collapse.”

Dominic expressed concern about the enormous consumption of Down Gem. Even the Naga fortress, which had relatively ample military funds, had seen its warehouses noticeably emptying in recent times.

The situation in other labyrinths was clearly several times worse than in the Naga fortress.

“Were the counts of the 11th floor fighting against these guys?”

The war on the 11th floor, which had started much earlier than on the 9th floor, made him admire the power of the 11th floor counts anew.

However, he could not continue to admire the counts’ struggles forever.

Even at this moment, the labyrinths of the 9th floor were accumulating fatigue as they gathered all the Down Gem they had, or didn’t have, to maintain the front line, and the number of enemies continued to increase.

After much deliberation, he made a decision.

“I will accept Dinarioun’s request.”

“It’s impossible to maintain the front line without you, Master!”

It was already difficult to defend the 9th floor, and Kim Jin-woo’s departure, who was the core of the 9th floor defense, had to be avoided at all costs.

Without his titles of Commander of the Inheritance and Conqueror, it would be difficult to maintain the front line for even a single day.

Dominic was naturally horrified that Kim Jin-woo, who knew this fact well, was going to leave the 9th floor.

“Just holding out like this is meaningless. Unless we push up the front line, find the passage through which the enemies are coming, and block the path, this terrible war of attrition will not end.”

Did Dominic not know that? Nevertheless, she desperately tried to dissuade Kim Jin-woo from leaving.

“Absolutely! Absolutely not! I’ve heard that the situation on the 11th floor is even worse than here. The counts there are fighting the enemies separately without even a front line, so you never know when or where you’ll be attacked. I absolutely cannot let you go to such a dangerous place alone, Master.”

Desperate persuasion and pleas followed, but Dominic’s efforts were in vain.

Finally, one of the labyrinths, unable to withstand the consumption of funds, self-destructed. As a result, the front line collapsed, and enemies poured in like a flood through the breached hole.

Although they managed to re-establish the front line belatedly, the front line that had crossed half of the 9th floor was reduced to one-third, and even that was suffering from the enemy’s relentless offensive.

As Kim Jin-woo said, holding out like this was like blocking the entrance and inviting starvation.

In the end, Kim Jin-woo had no choice but to accept Dinarioun’s request.

“The situation on the 9th floor can’t be good either, so you’ve made a difficult decision.”

Dinarioun, having already heard about the war situation on the 9th floor, was very surprised by his decision.

“Good thinking, maybe it wouldn’t be bad to establish a foothold on the 11th floor on this occasion. Your noble rank is viscount, which is enough to reside on the 11th floor.”

“It’s too early to be happy, Dinarioun.”

Kim Jin-woo coldly cut him off, as if he was about to arbitrarily exaggerate his decision if left unchecked.

“I intend to get a proper price for my services.”

“Yes, how much do you intend to lend your title of Commander of the Inheritance for?”

Kim Jin-woo opened his mouth at Dinarioun’s question.

“Support for the troops and military funds to maintain the 9th floor front line. That’s the price I want for my services.”

***

Dinarioun readily accepted his request. However, he also set a condition: to first show results that the counts of the 11th floor could accept.

“In the end, the 9th floor front line will have to hold out without me for the time being.”

At Kim Jin-woo’s words, Dominic made a determined vow.

“I will definitely hold out until you return, Master.”

As the king’s advisor and the proxy, she would be able to manage the front line somehow, even if it was difficult.

However, she could not replace the titles of Commander and Conqueror, which the troops on the front line were relying on, and it would be difficult if the schedule on the 11th floor was prolonged.

So, Kim Jin-woo could not delay. He crossed the passage that Dinarioun had connected and headed to the 11th floor alone.

***

From the day Kim Jin-woo left the 9th floor, the front line began to shrink rapidly. Dominic and the Nagas desperately tried to fill his void.

She pushed the ancient war heroes to the point of overexertion, and as a result, she succeeded in reducing the sacrifice of ordinary troops to some extent.

However, even the powerful Morrigan and Heimdall were not invincible, and as time passed, the war situation began to deteriorate.

Facing the endless waves of enemies, everyone on the 9th floor thought. They hoped and hoped that the great Commander of the Inheritance would return as soon as possible, and that the reinforcements he had promised would reach the 9th floor.