Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 162

Dungeon Journal – Episode 163

# 163

Dungeon Journal

Like a newborn seeking its mother’s milk, Angela continued to drink his blood.

Her dry, brittle yellow hair quickly regained its luster, shining with a golden hue, and her sunken cheekbones and eye sockets filled out nicely.

Despite this, she didn’t stop drinking his blood, and Kim Jin-woo didn’t stop her either.

How much time had passed? Even he, who was rarely shaken, felt dizzy when Angela finally pulled her lips from his wrist.

Her plump lips parted, and an unusually cheerful voice flowed out.

“Master!”

Just moments ago, she had been practically a living corpse, but now she jumped up and hugged him as if nothing had happened.

“Where have you been all this time…?”

The cheerful voice quickly became tearful.

“The Blood Contract is absolute. I should be able to feel you. I should be able to find you…”

Her words were disjointed, but Kim Jin-woo could tell, even without the Eye of Truth [an ability to discern truth], that she was genuinely happy to be reunited with him.

“But I couldn’t feel you. You disappeared…”

Before she could continue, Yoon-hee, who had approached unnoticed, spoke for her.

“Even after coming to the surface, she kept worrying about her master. It was so touching; it almost moved me to tears.”

He had already guessed as much. The moment the connection with her master, bound by the Blood Contract, was severed, she would have rapidly deteriorated.

In fact, the state he found her in was dangerous, and it would have been too late if he had delayed any longer.

Damn it.

He felt pathetic for being so caught up in the Great Labyrinth that he had completely forgotten about things on the surface. Filled with regret and self-reproach, he kept stroking her golden hair.

“Later, I became too weak to even search for you, even though I could feel your presence.”

She barely managed to stop crying as she chattered about what had happened. Yoon-hee, who had been quietly watching, subtly excused herself.

Before she left the room, he expressed his gratitude with a look.

“Well, I received help from her too.”

Yoon-hee seemed unnecessarily flustered by his thanks and fled the room.

“Ah, right, Master! Down Jam! I found Down Jam. I found its location!”

After Yoon-hee left, Angela said proudly after a long while.

“Really? Where is it?”

Even though he had found a vein where Down Jam was discovered in abundance, he felt his ears perk up.

“It’s a large building, but the security at the entrance is so tight that I couldn’t get all the way inside.”

“Looks like Explorers are guarding it.”

Angela’s stealth, which allowed her to move hidden in the shadows, was so subtle that even he couldn’t detect her unless he concentrated.

If the security was so tight that she couldn’t approach, then Dungeon Babies [monsters that guard dungeons] must be guarding it.

“Let’s rest for a bit and then head over there.”

Seeing it once directly would be much more efficient than hearing about it a hundred times. So, he silenced Angela’s chattering mouth and left the room.

Yoon-hee, who had been waiting, saw him and was about to say something. But Kim Jin-woo was faster.

“There’s still something you need to explain.”

His eyes flashed with an eerie intensity, unlike before.

“I can explain,” Yoon-hee said defensively, visibly flustered.

“Yes, you need to explain.”

The energy of the labyrinth, which he hadn’t noticed at first due to the aftermath of escaping the Great Labyrinth’s control, was now clearer than ever.

And that energy was incomparably stronger than the energy emitted by the insignificant labyrinth core he had planted.

And Kim Jin-woo knew exactly what this energy was.

“Why is there a Party Hall on the surface?”

His eyes flashed at the energy of the Party Hall, which had replaced the vanished surface labyrinth.

***

Yoon-hee felt goosebumps all over her body at his threat, which wasn’t really a threat. She wouldn’t have been so surprised if he had just glared at her with his usual intense gaze.

But now, he wasn’t even revealing that much energy.

Nevertheless, she felt more oppressed by his presence than ever before.

Is this the power of a High Lord?

The difference in their very beings. Not a fierce onslaught, but a quiet suppression with a higher rank, a more powerful presence.

That alone made it impossible for her to resist his energy.

“I, I’m a hybrid. Although I have my mother’s blood, I’m a being who can’t live without belonging to a labyrinth.”

She barely managed to open her mouth and explain the situation.

“There are many other hybrids who have come to the surface. None of them have said the same thing as you.”

Numerous hybrids were hiding their origins and operating on the surface, but none of them relied on the labyrinth like she did.

“It’s different. I’m different from them.”

“Explain more.”

Perhaps he was curious. His momentum seemed to ease a little. She felt the tightness in her chest loosen and unconsciously stroked her neck.

“Because I’m a slave.”

“What?”

Kim Jin-woo frowned for a moment, as if he hadn’t expected that. Seeing him, Yoon-hee gritted her teeth and continued her explanation.

“The Counts of the Deep are not so gentle or easy to deal with that they blindly trust their blood relatives. Although Dinariyon is my father, he didn’t completely trust me. No, not just me, he doesn’t trust anyone. Not even the pure-blooded heirs.”

It wasn’t a surprising story. It was only natural for beings living in the Underworld not to trust others, not just the Counts of the Deep.

But none of them cursed their own relatives as terribly as the Counts of the Deep did.

“This is the proof.”

“That’s…”

“The mark of the heir, but none of the heirs are proud of it.”

The faint brand on her fair skin was hideous, like an old scar.

“A terrible curse that causes the entire body to rot if the caster’s will is resisted. We call it the Slave’s Mark.”

This time, even Kim Jin-woo seemed surprised. Seeing him unable to speak, she laughed self-deprecatingly.

“The only way to escape the influence of this curse is for either me or Dinariyon to die, or to go somewhere where the curse’s power can’t reach.”

Perhaps that was why she was so eager for the sunlight on the surface.

“And I wanted to start anew in a place where the curse’s power couldn’t reach.”

If she was going to build a labyrinth on the surface, there was no reason to stop Yoon-hee.

It was a shame about the effort she had put in, but with the uncontrollable monster, the Great Labyrinth, already standing on the 9th floor, there was no place for a Party Hall.

However, he couldn’t force her to kneel and settle somewhere in the Underworld.

If her words were true, she would eventually be played by Dinariyon’s intentions. And the Eye of Truth told him that she was only telling the truth.

With things so twisted, it might be beneficial for both of them if she was out of Dinariyon’s influence.

But even so, he couldn’t support her decision.

It was because of the humans on the surface, who were as cunning and treacherous as the beings of the Underworld, or perhaps even more dangerous.

He couldn’t help but consider the possibility that humans might discover the existence of the Party Hall in the worst-case scenario, as the energy of the Party Hall, which had already been upgraded quite a bit, was excessively powerful, let alone the core he had planted.

“I wasn’t trying to deceive you with inheritance rights or anything. And I wasn’t lying either. Just because I have the Slave’s Mark doesn’t mean I’m really a slave. My inheritance rights are still valid.”

Yoon-hee didn’t run away. Even though she could have abandoned the weakened Angela and hid somewhere on the surface if she had wanted to, she didn’t run away from him.

“Please, help me.”

Yoon-hee knelt down and pleaded earnestly.

A slave bought at the auction house, but also the heir of the Nightmare Dinariyon and a hybrid of the Underworld with the blood of a surface dweller. Leaving aside that complex relationship, at this moment, he saw himself in her desperate appearance.

A weak and pitiful being struggling to escape from the monster that was the Underworld, that was the past self and the current Yoon-hee.

“Is this the price for Angela’s life?”

Angela had said that although it didn’t match the source of life, she could at least prolong her life through her blood.

Kim Jin-woo had already decided to help her, but he needed some justification. That was his mindset for living in the Underworld, his manual.

Not unconditional goodwill, but a mutually beneficial relationship of give and take, perhaps a mere wordplay, but he somewhat forcibly defined his relationship with her in that way.

“Alright, I will help you, but I will receive a price.”

But it wouldn’t be free. The help that Yoon-hee would need in the future would be greater than the price of Angela’s life.

“Whatever it is, if it’s something I can do, I will definitely pay the price.”

Yoon-hee bowed her head. The Eye of Truth said that there was not a single lie mixed in her heart.

The one he couldn’t hold with a contract of vassalage ironically swore allegiance to him with all her heart at the moment when all restrictions were lifted.

“I will call someone soon. It would be pointless to dig all the way to the Underworld to find out why you escaped, but it wouldn’t be difficult to put soil on the labyrinth to hide it from people’s eyes.”

It would probably take quite a bit of effort. But Kim Jin-woo didn’t think it was troublesome.

With the existence of Yoon-hee and the Party Hall, he was confident that he could gain more than he thought.

Her Party Hall would be a resting place where he could relax until he put a leash on the uncontrollable monster, the Great Labyrinth.

Also, in the worst-case scenario, it would be the foundation for him to start over.

“Thank you.”

Kim Jin-woo, who had been lost in thought, returned to reality at Yoon-hee’s sincere greeting. The sight of her looking at him with a friendly smile was unfamiliar, but it wasn’t a bad feeling.

“There’s nothing to thank me for.”

But he brushed off her thanks indifferently.

“My labyrinth will also be built next to your Party Hall.”

He still had the core of the labyrinth that had luckily escaped the Great Labyrinth’s appetite.

The surface core he had planted in preparation for the worst-case scenario in the year-long desperate war, he was planning to seriously nurture that core from now on.