Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 227

Dungeon Journal-Episode 228

82. Mask

“Yes, Mother. Don’t worry. I’ll talk to him and bring him. Yes, yes. Mother, I’ll call you when we leave.”

It was getting worse. Angela’s voice was so affectionate that Kim Jin-woo, who was listening, got goosebumps all over.

“Yes, rest well, Mother.”

She finished the call with a laugh and shrugged when she met his eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“What else? Relieving your mother’s worries. She’s been worried about her son who hasn’t shown his face for months.”

Her attitude of accepting his words so casually was too natural. If a stranger saw it, they might think she was quite friendly and a perfect daughter-in-law.

“No, why are you doing that…….”

But from Kim Jin-woo’s point of view, it was just an absurd situation. He sent her to protect his family from a distance, but now she was about to take over his house and act like a daughter-in-law. No, she was already doing it.

“She’s a kind and cheerful girl. She must be having a hard time in a foreign land, but she’s so lovely without any gloom. So, don’t think about anything else and treat her well.”

Recalling his mother, who was speaking in an uncharacteristically emotional voice, he already had a headache.

“And, I wasn’t going to say anything about the relationship between a man and a woman, but when there are other people, please refrain from using that title…….”

“Title?”

“Isn’t the title ‘Master’ a bit unusual?”

At this point, it was easier to think that she was deliberately trying to tease him.

“How else am I supposed to survive on this desolate Earth if I don’t have this kind of joy?”

But she seemed to resent Kim Jin-woo for abandoning her on Earth.

When he thought about it, it was more advantageous for her mission to stay by his side openly like that, rather than secretly protecting his family, so he couldn’t just blame her.

Besides, it was a bit much to leave a vampire who could only fully communicate with the world through her master alone for so long, as she said.

So, he didn’t pursue the matter any further, letting out a long sigh.

“Hoo, I understand for now, so let’s talk about this later.”

He was worried about the aftermath, but for now, there was something he needed to take care of first. Kim Jin-woo stared at Angela, who was smiling slyly, and turned his head.

“Angela, there has been a change in the Underworld.”

He briefly summarized everything that had happened in the Underworld. Angela’s face, which had been listening to him without much seriousness at first, hardened like stone later on.

“Thanks to that, the Underworld is now in complete chaos. The deep and lower layers are in contact, and the upper layers have become a complete mess.”

Even after telling her about the situation on the 9th floor, where he was confronting an unknown duke, her face became even more serious.

“Then is the Labyrinth in a dangerous situation now?”

“No, I can’t say it’s relaxed, but as long as the Great Labyrinth exists, the Labyrinth won’t be captured overnight.”

If it was just one duke-level labyrinth, he could somehow deal with it on his own. He didn’t know how much of his power would work, but the power of the High Lord was by no means insignificant.

But unfortunately, there was not just one labyrinth created on the 9th floor. To the east, to the west, to the north, and again to the south. Enemies were everywhere.

Even if Valisha and Daedalus’s research was successfully completed, he couldn’t rest assured. He wanted to make everything certain.

Unlike before, he knew very well that the variables would not work in his favor.

“In the meantime, this interesting guy got caught.”

Among them, the biggest variable was the dungeon babies from China. No less than twenty underworld nobles were hiding among the Chinese searchers, so he needed to know how things were going.

“He looks like this, but he’s a viscount of the underworld, although he’s a half-wit now that I’ve recovered the seal.”

Kim Jin-woo nudged the man lying at his feet toward her.

“Indeed, he has quite a solid foundation. He’s the strongest groundling [a term for surface dwellers or humans] I’ve ever seen, except for you, Master.”

Angela, who regarded groundlings as less than dirt under her fingernails except for her master, showed a rare sign of admiration.

“I guess so. He was born in the deep layers, even if he’s not a viscount.”

Kim Jin-woo spoke as if it was nothing, but the man was not such an insignificant being.

Although there was a limit to the layer in which they were born, the dungeon babies of Korea were all warriors who could fight a hundred men. Among them, he was the one who suppressed the strongman whom the association dispatched as commander and overwhelmed the numerous searchers with his momentum.

If he hadn’t appeared there, he would still be wielding his power.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

The story was getting long, but there was only one reason why he called Angela.

“I need the power of a vampire.”

“I didn’t inherit the true blood. I can’t guarantee that my abilities will work.”

In the first place, the vampires who inherited the true blood were no longer in the underworld. He knew that well enough, so he didn’t show much disappointment at her words.

“The person you will use your abilities on is not him.”

***

Kim Jin-woo was able to find out a lot through the interpreter dispatched by the association.

He found out that the man was a deep-seated dungeon baby named Liu Zhipeng and was the chief of the Chinese underworld operation in Korea.

He also learned that he and countless other deep-seated dungeon babies had accepted the position of underworld nobles, and some of them had even risen to the rank of duke.

“If he knows he’s been dragged here, Lü Yang won’t stay still.”

The interpreter’s voice trembled. That was because the current sight was too terrifying for ordinary groundlings.

He couldn’t bear to face the appearance of the man named Liu Zhipeng, who was covered in blood and writhing on the floor, spitting out blood every time he spoke, and he kept turning his eyes away.

But none of them cared about a mere interpreter.

“It seems that the guy named Lü Yang is the one who took the duke’s seat.”

“He was born on the 13th floor and is a real strongman who rules the duke-level labyrinth. He is a superhuman who cannot be compared to himself, so if he releases himself even now, he will pretend that nothing has happened. Anyone who knows the seal of the nobility should do so…….”

The interpreter was now closing his eyes tightly. The words duke and viscount were so dangerous that he looked as if he had witnessed a meeting of spies in front of his eyes.

“I can’t believe that Lü Yang is such a great guy until I see him in person.”

Kim Jin-woo spoke with a stiff face as if he was scared.

However, it was so shallow that even a three-year-old child could tell that it was a forced expression. But Liu Zhipeng’s eyes, which were swollen from being beaten, were no longer functioning properly.

Liu Zhipeng seemed to think that his threat had worked, and he was elated and blabbering.

“He is so much stronger than himself, who is only a viscount, that only ruins remain where his army has passed.”

“That’s great. Well, if he’s the one who rules the duke-level labyrinth, he’ll be like that.”

While the interpreter was conveying his words to Liu Zhipeng, Kim Jin-woo was lost in thought.

“Could it be that his army is a monster with an eagle’s head, a human, and a goat’s body?”

“He’s asking where you saw the satyrs [mythical creatures that are part human and part goat].”

At the interpreter’s words, he shone his eyes. He latched onto the thought that the place where the 2nd floor was in contact was the Chinese underworld, and the owner of the duke-level labyrinth that appeared on the 9th floor was really Lü Yang.

He was lucky to have heard the name satyr in the spur of the moment.

“Okay, I get the general idea. You don’t have to translate from now on.”

“Yes? Yes.”

The interpreter, with his eyes wide open, looked back and forth between Liu Zhipeng and Kim Jin-woo, who were chattering noisily. It seemed that Liu Zhipeng was demanding something.

But one was fine, and the other was writhing on the floor in a miserable state, so it was already clear whose words to listen to.

“Cough!”

As expected, Liu Zhipeng, who had been blabbering with vigor, closed his mouth again with a scream at the end of Kim Jin-woo’s punch.

“If, if there’s nothing else, can I go back now?”

A voice full of despair rather than expectation. But unexpectedly, he readily sent the interpreter away.

“Thank you, thank you! I will never tell anyone what I saw and heard here today.”

The interpreter, who was frightened, added words that he didn’t have to say.

“Do as you please. Post it on the Internet or spread rumors in the neighborhood. If you can.”

“Yes? Heeek!”

Did those words sound like ‘the dead tell no tales’? The interpreter was terrified and tried to scream.

But Angela was faster than that.

“Look at me.”

The interpreter, who was about to have a seizure, turned his head as if he was possessed by something. That was the end.

The scream that had risen to his chin was swallowed, and saliva dripped from his slightly open mouth instead of a scream. His hazy eyes had no focus, as if his soul had left his body.

“You look so tired. I think you should go to the sauna right away and rest. If you take a nap, all your fatigue will be relieved.”

At Angela’s words, the interpreter nodded slowly.

The interpreter, who was completely overwhelmed by the vampire’s hypnotic ability, muttered several times, ‘Why am I so tired? I need to heat up my body to feel better,’ and left the safe house.

Perhaps by the time he finishes the sauna, what happened today will have already disappeared from his mind.

“What about him? I can’t send him back, and my abilities don’t work.”

At Angela’s words, Kim Jin-woo nodded.

“I’ve heard all the information I can get for now, so I need to organize it.”

“Are you going to kill him?”

Angela smacked her lips. It seemed that she was very greedy for Liu Zhipeng’s life force.

After all, vampirism was the fastest way to become stronger, so she couldn’t help but be greedy for the blood of a prisoner who was a deep-seated dungeon baby.

“No, I’ll keep him alive for now.”

“If he’s a viscount, he’ll have his own labyrinth, so what are you going to do if he opens a portal and runs away?”

He’s taking on such a rough look because he doesn’t want to show the owner’s room of his labyrinth, but if the situation worsens, he might desperately open a portal.

“If he can open a portal, he’ll run away.”

“Yes?”

Angela couldn’t understand the words for a moment and made a blank face, but Kim Jin-woo’s presence suddenly changed.

“You cannot return to the underworld without my permission.”

The High Lord’s authority, the words of power, transcended language and became a will, piercing into Liu Zhipeng’s head.

***

“Why didn’t you use such power from the beginning?”

“Giving orders in the other person’s head is a matter of will, but getting information requires language.”

At Angela’s words, Kim Jin-woo shrugged his shoulders.

“More than that, Master, you’ve become incredibly strong.”

Angela, who faced the true monarch’s aura for the first time, was so excited that her face was still flushed.

“Thanks to you, I have a goal too.”

“Goal?”

He made a serious expression at the fact that she, who he couldn’t understand what she was thinking about, rarely revealed her inner thoughts.

“I want to have true blood.”

She, who used to say that she was a vampire who didn’t inherit true blood, was now shining her eyes more than ever.

“Your blood can make me real, not fake.”