Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 161

Dungeon Journal-161 (161/319)

# 161

Dungeon Journal

62. Another Name for the Great Labyrinth

The sensation of floating and dizziness when crossing a portal was profoundly strange. It felt as if a mind, hazy as in a dream, was being forcibly aligned with reality, and Kim Jin-woo groaned at the sense of disconnect.

Then he realized he had felt this terrible feeling before.

“Nightmare….”

The unpleasantness he felt after his forced encounter with Dinariyon was just like this. But now, he hadn’t met Dinariyon and had a nightmare, nor had he even slept in the first place.

Nevertheless, the lingering echoes of shattered emotions were astonishingly similar to the power of a nightmare.

He felt as if he had awakened from a long nightmare.

“Damn it….”

Kim Jin-woo cursed.

He wasn’t stupid, so he understood the reason for this strange misalignment surrounding him.

The Great Labyrinth.

This unique monster in the underground was somehow influencing him.

And he instinctively realized that now that he was on the surface, the connection with the Great Labyrinth had weakened, allowing him to wake up from the nightmare.

“Oh my god.”

Goosebumps covered his body. His skin prickled. A cold chill ran down his spine, and his head spun as if he were standing on the edge of a cliff.

The monster that had swallowed thousands of rioters and hundreds of Moais [giant stone statues, often associated with Easter Island] was now trying to devour its master’s mind as well.

The Great Labyrinth was a more dangerous monster than he had imagined. This massive, sinister monster was a mass of greed.

[High Lord Kim Jin-woo has realized the true name of the Great Labyrinth.]

[Your actions have been closer to violence than peace, and closer to domination than harmony. You are a fierce warrior and a greedy ruler. You are a fire that burns everything and greed itself.]

[The Great Labyrinth is a being born from your influence. This unique Great Labyrinth, which has never existed before and will never exist again, is a glutton that devours everything.]

[The true name of the Great Labyrinth is ‘Greed (貪慾)’.]

The moment he saw the belated message, his suspicion turned into certainty.

[Your power as a High Lord is not yet complete. Nevertheless, the Great Labyrinth of Greed, born from you, is as powerful as the Great Labyrinths of the ancient Ten Monarchs.]

[If you do not quickly resolve the imbalance of power, your mind will be devoured by the greedy Great Labyrinth.]

[Gather fragments of the ancient monarchs or fragments of ancient powers. That is the only way you can bring this greedy monster to its knees.]

It seemed he had embraced a monster he couldn’t handle. Kim Jin-woo took a long breath to clear his confused mind.

Although he had almost been devoured by an uncontrollable monster, the situation wasn’t all bad. At least he had found a clue on how to control the Great Labyrinth.

The moment he cleared his mind, the path ahead was set.

Find beings like Ustus, absorb the fragments of the ancient monarchs, find the seals of the underground nobles, and absorb the fragments of the old powers.

And he would grow stronger and whip the calves of the disobedient monster [idiom meaning to punish or control someone]. Then the Great Labyrinth would never dare to covet him again.

He was truly angry at the monster’s outrageous behavior of not even recognizing its master.

“How did the King get here….”

Lost in thought, he lowered his stance at the sudden appearance of a presence. But he soon recognized the figure and wore a blank expression.

“Yoon-hee?”

Yoon-hee, who he had heard had abandoned the labyrinth and disappeared, was standing before him, barely covered in his oversized T-shirt that didn’t fit her.

***

“When contact with the King was lost, the situation was very bad.”

Yoon-hee recounted the past events in a rather indifferent tone.

“The Moais were approaching right up to the party hall, and it was not enough for me and the shadow summons to stop them.”

Kim Jin-woo had been cut off from the world for nearly half a month because of the Great Labyrinth.

Since Yoon-hee and the party hall had complained that it was hard to hold out any longer, it would have been impossible to last any longer during the two weeks.

“But why go to the surface of all places?”

The surface was not a familiar place for Yoon-hee. Although it was a place with a strange longing and nostalgia that she herself didn’t know the reason for, there was nothing she could do on the surface.

It wasn’t a very good choice for a refuge. Ignorant of the surface, she was as helpless as a dungeon baby [referring to someone completely dependent and vulnerable], unable to perform even the simplest tasks.

But it seemed there was a reason why she had to flee to the surface. She revealed her inner thoughts with surprising honesty.

“Dinariyon, his herald came to find me.”

“Dinariyon?”

Now that it had been revealed that the Queen of Delusions was a spy, Kim Jin-woo couldn’t believe everything she said, but he pretended to listen without showing it. At least, she was not lying as he looked at her through the Eye of Truth.

“He seemed to want me to return.”

“Ah….”

The question deepened further. Although she had been pushed out of the succession competition and became a Black Merchant’s auction item, there was no reason not to go if her own father was calling her. At least the 11th floor Count’s labyrinth was more familiar and safer for her than the surface.

“I didn’t want to go back.”

“Why?”

At his question, she answered with a somewhat stiff face.

“Because I knew what he wanted.”

Yoon-hee paused for a moment and immediately continued the story.

“The moment contact with the King was lost, I could realize it. What he needed was not Yoon-hee, the owner and successor of the labyrinth, but a vessel to contain the power of the ancient monarch.”

Having said that, she looked at Kim Jin-woo’s expression.

“You’re not surprised.”

“I’ve been backstabbed so many times that it’s not even surprising anymore.”

In fact, he was not at all surprised even though she knew all about the High Lord.

“And Ariane confessed my identity. She also knew about the High Lord. If I were surprised by your words in this situation, I would have nothing to say even if I died.”

It was something he had expected when he received Ariane’s confession.

“Don’t you resent me?”

“Resentment? This is the underground where you eat or be eaten. I don’t intend to play such childish emotional games.”

His tone was so indifferent that perhaps he wasn’t surprised because he had been consumed by the Great Labyrinth of Greed and had vented so much anger in such a short time that he had no more emotions left to expend.

“That doesn’t mean I understand. If you know about the High Lord, you should know how great this power is, right?”

“But it’s also a dangerous power.”

Kim Jin-woo thought that she might know more about the High Lord’s power and the Great Labyrinth than he had imagined.

“My brothers and sisters have already been sacrificed trying to reproduce the power of the ancient monarchs. I don’t think he has found something new to make up for his past failures.”

But the danger she was thinking of and the danger he was thinking of seemed a little different. She was worried about what would happen if the power failed to materialize.

“His power is a nightmare, and as long as you are alive, you cannot escape his power. Everyone has to sleep. So I fled to the surface where his power couldn’t reach.”

Yoon-hee shrugged, indicating that she had said everything she had to say. There was no lie in her words as he looked at her through the Eye of Truth. She had really come to the surface to escape from Dinariyon.

“Still, I’m still wondering.”

“What are you wondering?”

“I never told you the location of my house, nor did I give you the opportunity to connect the portal?”

Kim Jin-woo used her longing and nostalgia for the surface to tame her. Of course, he wasn’t so careless as to let her go to the surface on her own.

“I received help.”

“Help?”

Yoon-hee answered with a rather tired face.

“You’re a bad man. I thought you would have remembered by now.”

Perhaps because she had been released from the vassal contract, she was treating him comfortably.

“I received help from the vampire.”

“Angela!”

He called out Angela’s name, belatedly recalling the existence of the blindly devoted vampire.

“When she realized that she had completely lost contact with you and that the path to the 9th floor was blocked, she came to find me. And I fled to the surface with her.”

Angela was different from the others. While others had a forced relationship of subjugation through the vassal contract, she chose her own master to serve through the blood contract.

And the blood contract was an absolute and coercive contract that could not be compared to a vassal contract.

This terribly strong contract, in which the master’s blood was the source of life, had one drawback:

“She’s almost on the verge of extinction now.”

If she couldn’t drink the master’s blood, her energy would rapidly decline and eventually she would die.

“Where is Angela?”

Yoon-hee shrugged and turned to guide him. She seemed to have become quite familiar in a short time, walking around his hideout as if it were her own home.

But he didn’t care about her attitude. He was worried about Angela’s condition, who was dying from exhaustion of her life force.

“Go inside.”

Following her guidance, he arrived at his room, which he usually used as a bedroom, and he couldn’t help but groan.

“M-Master?”

On the barren bed with white sheets, there was Angela with a complexion as pale as the sheets.

She, who would have clung to him as soon as she saw him, was barely able to answer his voice, as if it was difficult even to open her eyes.

In less than a month, the beautiful and haughty vampire had been reduced to a skeleton, transformed like a corpse.

“Master!”

She called him in a parched voice that sounded like she was about to cough up dry coughs.

“I-I found the whereabouts of Down Jam. I followed your orders even while you were away.”

Even though she was losing her source of life and dying, she listed her accomplishments as if she wanted to be praised.

Kim Jin-woo, without showing any resentment, unknowingly reached out and stroked her once luscious, but now dry and cracked, blonde hair.

“Good job, Angela. Thank you for your hard work.”

“Hehe.”

Looking at Angela, who was smiling foolishly, he sharply raised his fingernails and cut his wrist.

“Ah.”

She, who was too weak to even turn her head, struggled to not miss a single drop of the bright red essence of life.

Even though her parched and cracked lips tore off pieces of flesh, she blindly craved his blood without even caring about the pain.

Her body, which had lost its vitality and was as dry as a mummy, gradually regained its vitality.